OSLO.- If you mention embroidery, many will immediately think of tablecloths with floral vines, bell pulls, or landscapes created through cross-stitching. In recent years, however, embroidery has been taken up again and discussed in contemporary art, thereby showing that preconceived notions should be reassessed. The National Museum’s new exhibition “The Needle’s Eye: Contemporary Embroidery”, to be displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design from 22 February to 16 May 2015, may well be a step in that direction.

The exhibition “The Needle’s Eye: Contemporary Embroidery” focuses on embroidery as an artistic expression. Embroidery as an action and a technique is enmeshed in charged histories about gender roles, status, power, and artistic value, histories that contemporary deliberately exploit in their works. The exhibition also reflects embroidery’s flexibility and scope both in style and in its use of materials.

A total of thirty-seven contemporary artists from Norway and abroad will display their works in the exhibition, which comments on society, art, and the tradition of embroidery.

The following artists will be represented: Sidsel Palmstrøm, John K. Raustein, Erlend Helling-Larsen, Kristine Fornes, Synnøve Øyen, Maria Ryan Sondresen, Hans Hamid Rasmussen, Anne Ingeborg Biringvad, Siri Ensrud, Åse Ljones, Lars Sture, Málfriður Adalsteinsdottir, Erik Hellsten, Regien Cox, Jochen Flinzer, Marion Strunk, Maurizio Anzeri, Flore Gardner, Patrick Ian Hartley, Susie Vickery, Eliza Bennett, Susan Collis, Ghada Amer/Reza Farkhondeh, Nava Lubelski, Orly Cogan, Kent Henricksen, Sonya Clark, Lou Cabeen, Tucker Schwarz, Linda Behar, Elana Herzog, Anna von Mertens, Bren Ahearn, Kimsooja, Gunvor Nervold Antonsen, and Maria Manuela Rodrigues.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the National Museum and KODE – Art Museums of Bergen. The curators for the exhibition in Oslo are Anne Kjellberg and Knut Astrup Bull. The exhibition architect is Fredrik Torsteinsen.