Mona Eckhoff

Mona Eckhoff (b. 1972) lives and works as a professional visual artist in Oslo. She works in a wide range of expressions – from watercolor, drawing, and photography to installation and material-based paintings – and alternates between disciplines in her artistry.

Eckhoff has studied at several institutions in Europe, including the Bergen School of Art and Design, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, and DAMU Academy of Drama/Arts in Prague. She also has a degree in cultural entrepreneurship from the Norwegian Academy of Music. Through studies and residencies in Copenhagen, Oslo, Madrid, and Prague, she has developed an artistry that is characterized by both international impulses and a strong anchoring in Norwegian nature.

Her series of paintings, including “Under the Surface”, shown at Gallery Azur and Artsy, explore the inherent possibilities and processes of materials. The works are created with sand, gesso, marble dust, shells, lava stone, acrylic, and oil – often processed through cutting, drilling, tearing, and fraying. The texture often extends beyond the picture plane, and the stretcher frame becomes an active part of both the inner and outer space of the work. The paintings bear traces of the forces of nature, the effects of time, and human vulnerability.

Her upbringing in a small fishing village surrounded by the sea and harsh coasts, combined with the proximity to the deep forests outside Oslo, has had a great influence on Eckhoff's art. The colors, structures, and light of nature play a decisive role in her artistic language, where the imprints of time and transformation are a recurring theme. She draws inspiration from contrasts – nature and culture, stillness and movement, construction and decomposition – and processes these into works that reflect both bodily memory and emotional registers.

Since 1996, Eckhoff has exhibited at a number of galleries and institutions in Norway and internationally, in both solo and group exhibitions. She has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Holmenkollen Museum, Galleri S.E in Bergen, Galleri Brandstrup in Oslo, Galleri Walaker in Luster, the Norwegian Embassy in Copenhagen, as well as at institutions such as the Royal Danish Theatre and Opera in Copenhagen. She has participated in exhibitions and biennales in Denmark, Spain, Finland, Germany, Ukraine, and Sweden, among other countries.

In addition, she has completed several public art commissions, including for Kulturhuset Flammen in Nittedal (2024), Novaform in Oslo (2022–24), Molde traffic station, Postgirobygget in Oslo, and Skreia ungdomsskole. Works by Eckhoff can be found in public and private collections, including NRK, Statoil, TV 2, Stavanger Aftenblad, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, and Viking Cruises' art projects.

In parallel with her own practice, she has run a gallery, pilot projects, and curatorial collaborations, including a Norwegian-Danish cultural project at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Copenhagen. She has also worked as an art consultant, illustrated books, and acquired works for museums and collections.

Eckhoff has received numerous grants, awards, and nominations, including the Carnegie Art Award, support from the Arts Council Norway, Vederlagsfondet, the Nordic Culture Fund, and several county and international schemes.

In her artistry, the eternal cycle of construction and deconstruction in nature is central. As she herself puts it: “A painting has its own process of building up and breaking down, its own logic, and at some point, it is perceived as finished. We recognize brick walls in a city, rock formations by the sea, the bark of a tree, or wrinkles on a face – all testimonies to the passage of time. The artwork becomes a place where we can mirror both human vulnerability and strength.”

In an art historical context, her works can be seen as an extension of artists such as Antoni Tàpies, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, and the Italian Arte Povera movement, especially in their exploration of materials and work with construction and deconstruction.