10 Must-Visit Contemporary Galleries In Trondheim, Norway

The Trondheim Kunstmuseum is the largest art museum in the city, housing a collection of 19th century through contemporary artworks. It features a series of important lithographs by the country’s best-known artist, Edvard Munch. The museum has two venues: the TKM Bispegata situated near the Nidaros Cathedral, and TKM Gråmølna at Nedre Elvehavn. Free guided tours take place each Sunday afternoon at 1pm.

Modern Art Gallery is mid-Norway’s largest art gallery with an astounding collection that includes paintings, lithographs, and posters from Norway and beyond. In its 350 square-meter space, spread across two floors, the gallery presents a variety of contemporary artworks and other artistic initiatives throughout the year. Trondheim Modern Art Gallery also hosts exhibitions at the Royal Garden Hotel.

Situated in the center of the city, Trondelag Senter For Samtidskunst (Trøndheim Center For Contemporary Art) is a non-profit artist-run center for visual art and crafts. Founded as a joint project involving the Trøndelag Bildende Kunstnde (Visual Artists of Trøndelag) and Norske Kunsthåndverkere Midt-Norge (Norwegian Art and Crafts of Mid-Norway), the center presents a wide range of artistic expression, but focusing upon innovative and experimental art internationally, but specifically upon the region of Trøndelag. It also has a great influence upon the regions visual environment in a large number of projects related to art in public places.

Founded in 1845, Trondhjems Kunstforening is one of Norway’s oldest cultural institutions and, together with Trondheim Kunstmuseum, which is located on the same street, showcases a varied exhibition program of local, national and international art. From Scandinavian emerging artists to worldwide established ones, the gallery hosts several contemporary art exhibitions of a variety of visual art, from paintings to drawings to photography, and also organizes events throughout the year. There are showrooms on the first and second floor, whilst on the ground floor the museum hosts the popular café Ni Muser which opens into the garden during the summer.

Established in 1987 as a national academy of fine art, Kunstakademiet i Trondheim (Trondheim Academy Of Fine Art) is organized as a flexible and experimental educational institution and is well known as the first academy in the Nordic countries to offer education in media art. KIT hosts annual art exhibitions from its students, which presents them with an opportunity to show their works to a wider public. It also invites established international artists, from different artistic orientations and backgrounds, as guest lecturers. The academy is actively engaged in an international contemporary art milieu and has working relationships with artists, critics, curators and theorists from across the globe.

Founded by students from the KIT in 2002, Galleri Blunk is a non-profit gallery run by young local artists. The main goal of the gallery is to be an arena for art students and newly established artists to show their work to the local townsfolk. Galleri Bunk tries to stimulate meetings between contemporary art and the general public through several exhibitions and events during the year, showcasing different kinds of art, from visual to audio, installations to paintings, photography to printmaking. With its fresh and off-beat atmosphere, Galleri Blunk is one of the most important actors on the local art scene.

RAKE Visningsrom is an independent exhibition space focused upon art and architecture. It is the result of a student workshop in which thirty students from the architecture schools of Trondheim, Oslo and Bergen joined forces to design and construct an exhibition space using mainly materials from a nearby office building that was to be demolished. Now this venue is one of the most influential art spaces in Trondheim thanks to its young and original approach. Founded only in 2011, this space was nominated and shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe award for Contemporary Architecture in 2013.

Kunsthall Trondheim is a space for contemporary art in central Trondheim offering exhibitions, performances, film screenings and lectures. Its aim is to implement a new arena and laboratory for contemporary art, engaging in collaborations with other institutions and new artistic productions. The gallery hopes that this will include research and working periods with the artists to produce publications and presentations at Kunsthall Trondheim and at other venues.

Galleri SG is a small art gallery located on the banks of Nidelven river. The gallery opened in 2003 and instantly became one of the most popular and most visited galleries in Trondheim. It showcases works of various national and international artists, whether famous or just emerging, and presents a good selection of visual art including paintings, photography and sculpture, with ever-changing exhibitions. Its essential and rustic interiors, characterized by wood flooring, white walls, and massive wooden pillars which frame the rooms, is perfect for highlighting the artworks and also re-creates the typical warm atmosphere of a Nordic house.

The name of this gallery reflects its philosophy in showcasing a heterogeneous mixture of art languages which represent their own way of seeing the world, as well as different communications media. A contemporary art gallery which exhibits the best national and international artists, Babel has become one of the most influential and charismatic art galleries in town, and therefore is an unmissable destination during a trip to Mid-Norway. Every year 1218 artists from all over the world come to Trondheim and work there for one to three months. This allows the public to have direct access to a great variety of international art.
Trondheim | Nir L/Flickr