9 Must-Visit Contemporary Art Galleries In Bergen

At the foot of the seven mountains that surround Norway’s second largest city, there’s a lively art scene promoting local artists. Aside from a major museum with works by the likes of Munch and Picasso, art in Bergen is in the hands of a number of independent galleries and centers for the arts, often sponsored by forward-thinking national institutions. Discover the best of Bergen’s artistic community in our guide to the city’s top gallery spaces.

1. KODE

Museum

Edvard Munchs Woman, 1984 | Photo by Dag Fosse

KODE is comprised of five different museums, three of which were once the homes of Norwegian composers Edvard Grieg, Harald Saeverud, and Ole Bull. Despite this deep connection with the music world, KODE is foremost an art institution with a collection of over 43,000 works. The museum’s impressive holdings are broken down into smaller collections, the most prestigious being the Rasmus Meyer collection, which houses several masterpieces by celebrated Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Other offerings include the Stenersen collection with works by Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, and the China collection which, containing 2,500 objects spanning from the Stone Age to the early 20th century, is one of the largest displays of Chinese art in Europe.

Bergen Kunsthall

As one of the city’s premier cultural organizations, Bergen Kunsthall is both an exhibition space and an arts commissioner, instrumental in the development of the arts in Bergen and Norway at large. The institution comprises three different sections, each with a separate creative focus. The most important, the Kunsthall, holds large-scale solo and group exhibitions of national and international artists. The other spaces include Gallery NO. 5, a more intimate gallery leaning towards independent art, usually reserved for small-scale solo exhibitions of rising talents, and Landmark, which hosts screenings, concerts, and performing arts shows.

Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen Fine Art Society, Rasmus Meyers allé 5, Bergen, Norway , +47 55 55 93 10

2. Stiftelsen 3,14

Art Gallery

Current Disturbance by Mona Hatoum, 1996, edition 1/2. The D.Daskalopoulos Collection / Stieftelsen 3,14

Situated in a historical building circa 1845, Stiftelsen 3,14 is an exhibition space founded by three artists who at the end of the 1980s wished to broaden the horizons of Bergen’s then-limited art scene. A vital, multicultural dialogue is still at the gallery’s heart; indeed, most exhibitions center around the oeuvre of non-Scandinavian, often non-European artists. In particular, Stiftelsen 3,14 has hosted solo exhibitions of Chinese and Japanese artists. Open to all art forms, the gallery is also properly equipped for screenings, performing art shows, and special exhibitions involving sound. Stiftelsen 3,14 engages its audience in a dialog through relevant international contemporary art about the sociopolitical challenges of our international modern world.