Dag Arild Dramstad (b. 1973) is an artist and entrepreneur living in Oslo, Norway. He is schooled in the principles of classic, figurative art, and a self-taught software and embedded electronics engineer. His artwork spans from small drawings on paper to large paintings on canvas and wood.
tableaux
The figures and objects in the work of Dag Arild Dramstad are often – at least on the surface – representing a state of calm and tranquillity. In his paintings he depicts present-day scenes with vague clues regarding the essence of the scenes. His paintings indicate one or several storylines, often mundane in its nature, leaving the spectator to decipher the elements of significance – if any.
“I want the spectator to apprehend the painting like a partly obscured story. Like a snapshot, accidentally capturing a situation a few seconds to early or to late to get the full picture. The initial understanding of the scene might be challenged when perceiving the context of what is hidden, obscured, or implied.”
Dag Arild Dramstad
Space-time continuum
The scenes depicted extends beyond the moment in time and beyond the frame of the canvas. The fabric of space-time is warped and allows for some objects to be observed from different positions in both space and time, while others are absent, only discovered as a result of their interaction with other objects. Figures and objects can be found in odd positions, close to the edge of the painting, partly – or even completely – out of view.
Objects obscuring parts of the scene, putting the observer in a less than optimal position to see. figures looking at something undefined outside the frame, indications of something hidden from view of the spectator, only visible for the figures in the painting – missing context as a result of observing the scene from a difficult angle, arriving to early or to late, or looking in the wrong direction.
