Veslemøy Lilleengen:
Brytningstid

28. February – 05. April 2026

Free entrance

Webs Veslemøy Lilleengen Sølje Foto Susann Jamtøy

In her artistic practice, Veslemøy Lilleengen works with traditional crafts, material knowledge, and the labor of the hands as carriers of experience, community, and cultural memory.

For the exhibition «Brytningstid» (Time of Transition) at Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art, Lilleengen presents new works rooted in the forest and the sea—through materials, techniques, and rhythms that have accompanied human life for generations.

Shaped by her upbringing on her family’s farm on Ørlandet and more than twenty years as a resident of the autonomous neighborhood of Svartlamon in Trondheim, her practice is grounded in a do-it-yourself culture where sustainability, collaboration, and the sharing of knowledge are central.

"Norsk Bauta"

The knife functions as an extension of the hand and as a tool for navigating the material. In the forest, she gathers, among other things, bracket fungi, which are processed into textile-like surfaces, and birch root shoots that are shaped into vidje—an old technique traditionally used for rope-making, locks, and fastening mechanisms. Vidje, fishing nets, earth pigments, and the distinctive pot blue color form part of a material and formal language that connects labor, landscape, and body.

The exhibition consists of textile and sculptural works, installations, and a social space rooted in oral storytelling traditions and Trøndelag’s culture of sharing. Through craftsmanship, repetition, and the inherent memories of materials, Lilleengen explores how knowledge travels, changes form, and is passed on.

Veslemøy Lilleengen

Veslemøy Lilleengen (b. 1975, Ørlandet) is a visual artist working with textile, sculptural installations, and performance, and is based in Trondheim. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and a Master’s degree from the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art. Recent exhibitions include «Av jord» at Telemark Art Museum, Notodden (2024), the Grant Exhibition at Kunstmuseet Nord-Trøndelag, Namsos (2023), the Annual Exhibition of the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts at the National Museum, Oslo (2023), and «Arvegods» at Nils Aas Kunstverksted, Inderøy (2023). Her work has also been shown at Trondheim Art Museum, Trondheim kunstmuseum, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trøndelagsutstillingen, Babel visningsrom for kunst and the Hannah Ryggen Centre (Ørland). Lilleengen’s works are part of the collections of the Trondheim kunstmuseum og Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum.