Inger Johanne Grytting: Three Decades in Drawing: Traveling Exhibition Proposal

Inger Johanne Grytting: Three Decades in Drawing has been the first retrospective dedicated to the drawings of Inger Johanne Grytting, an artist whose meditative approach to mark-making has defined her practice over the past thirty years. From delicate, rhythmic repetitions to densely layered surfaces, Grytting’s works reflect a sustained engagement with introspection, perception, and material. Using the graphite pencil as a primary tool, she creates compositions that suggest both quiet intimacy and formal rigor. Spanning 1994 to 2024, this body of work offers a compelling view into a lifelong commitment to drawing as a process of discovery and quiet revelation.

Curation: The exhibition is centered around Westwood Gallery NYC's curated selection of 113 drawings exemplifying the evolution of Grytting's practice over the past thirty years. The first iteration of the exhibition included 53 of those drawings, curated by Lene Fjørtoft, Collection Advisor at the Nasjonalmuseet, and presented at Tegnerforbundet, the Norwegian Drawing Center in Oslo from April 11th to June 15th, 2025.

Number of Works: 113 Drawings (104 unframed, 9 framed) - Download Artwork Checklist

Linear Dimension: 220 - 280 Linear Feet (67.1 - 85.3 Linear Meters)

Loan Fee: No Fee

Availability: Selected Dates 2025 - 2027

Exhibition Resources: Press Release Materials, Labels, Wall Text, Interview with Inger Johanne Grytting in English, Hi-Resolution Images

Insurance: Host Institution is responsible for providing wall-to-wall insurance and transit insurance from previous location

Shipping: Host Institution will be responsible for shipping (Currently from Oslo, Norway)

Packing: Artworks are crated and prepared for shipping

Contact:

Margarite Almeida, Executive Director of Westwood Gallery NYC

mmalmeida@westwoodgallery.com
Office: (212) 925-5700
Inger Johanne Grytting in her Bowery Studio. Photograph by Ruth Mirsky.

Inger Johanne Grytting (b. 1949)

Inger Johanne Grytting was born and raised in Svolvær, Norway, a small island town on the Lofoten archipelago. In 1972, Grytting moved to the Bowery in New York City, where she studied art at City College of New York. She was guided by her friend and mentor Jan Groth (1938-2022) who introduced her to the New York art scene. In addition to her art practice, Grytting was the art director of Fiction Magazine for over forty years, where she connected international writers and visual artists.

Grytting’s artwork is exhibited internationally and collected by museums and private collections. Selected museum exhibitions include The Vigeland Museum (Oslo, Norway), and Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (Tromsø, Norway). Her artworks are in the collection of The National Museum of Art (Oslo, Norway), Stavanger Kunstmuseum (Stavanger, Norway), Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (Tromsø, Norway), KODE (Bergen, Norway), and others.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 - Inger Johanne Grytting: Three Decades in Drawing, Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway
2022 - Inger Johanne Grytting: Life Lines, Westwood Gallery NYC, New York, NY, USA

2017 - New Drawings, The Vigeland Museum, Oslo, Norway

2016 - New Work, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway

2015 - Extensions, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø, Norway

2013 - Galleri Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

2013 - Recent Work, The Boiler Room Gallery, Oslo, Norway

2012 - Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter, Svolvær, Norway

2012 - New Paintings, Rose Burlingham Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2010 - Lines Among Lines, Trygve Lie Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2005 - Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norway

2005 - Bodø Kunstforening, Bodø, Norway

2005 - Atelier Lofoten, Svolvær, Norway

2003 - Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 - On Art and Friendship: Mimi Gross and Inger Johanne Grytting, Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter, Svolvær, Norway

2022 - Artists and Immigrants: The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, New York, NY
2018 - Light Lines: The Art of Jan Groth, Inger Johanne Grytting and Thomas Pihl, Scandinavia House, New York
2018 - Slow Waltz, Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway

2016 - Treasures — Skatter, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø, Norway

2015 - The Word of Modern Art: Artists as Writers, The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation, New York, USA

2011 - Selected Works from the Collection of Sparebank1 Nord-Norges Stiftelse, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø, Norway

Publications

Inger Johanne Grytting: Selected Works. Oslo: Teknisk Industri, 2018.
Inger Johanne Grytting: Extensions. Oslo: Teknisk Industri, 2015. Published by Northern Norway Art Museum.

Download CV
“Drawing is like a conversation of images that describe an internal dialogue, where I discover things about myself.”

— Inger Johanne Grytting
1990s

35 Drawings Available

8 Selected Drawings Below, Others Available in Artwork Checklist

In Grytting’s drawings from the 1990s, the creative process centered on negotiating the space between figuration and abstraction. A primary concern was the visualization of tension, expressed through repeated linear forms that each conveyed distinct emotional or physical states. The motif of the knot emerged as a recurring subject—both in its complexity and simplicity—as an organic metaphor for tension. These forms were drawn from observed structures: ropes binding objects, or lines stretched taut between fixed points, offering visual cues for exploring balance, pressure, and restraint.
- Inger Johanne Grytting, T 54, 1995
- Inger Johanne Grytting, T 2, 1994
“Knots, in their complexity or simplicity, inherently describe tension.”

— Inger Johanne Grytting
2000s

37 Drawings Available

13 Selected Drawings Below, Others Available in Artwork Checklist

“I don’t yearn for control. I observe accidental breaks of the pencil’s point... as the mark’s own expression.”

— Inger Johanne Grytting
In 2004, Grytting frees herself from recognizable forms and fully embraces an abstract, almost meditative repetition of lines. The lines, of a monotonous, yet irregular character, carry traces of the hand’s imperfections- small deviations that bring life and energy to the surface. It is precisely in these unexpected disruptions, in the “mistakes”, that Grytting’s drawings find their rhythm and vitality. Here, she explores the boundaries and limitations of drawing, with the line becoming both an idea and a physical trace.
“Her drawings carry traces of the hand’s imperfections—small deviations that bring life and energy to the surface.”

— Lene Fjørtoft, Curator and Collection Advisor at Nasjonalmuseet
Grytting’s use of repeated forms and subtle geometric frameworks reflects the ethos of 1960s Minimalism, marked by anonymity and restraint. Yet, it is the very rigor of her approach that highlights each expressive deviation. When the tip of her 8B Faber Castell pencil breaks mid-line, she continues without correction, allowing small gaps to appear—deliberate pauses within the dense fields of graphite. These interruptions introduce a quiet rhythm to the surface, transforming each line into a temporal and psychological marker, and revealing the intimate presence of the artist’s hand within the system she constructs.
2010s

22 Drawings

8 Selected Drawings Below, Others Available in Artwork Checklist

“As soon as I make the first mark I am committed to the drawing.”

— Inger Johanne Grytting
"I discovered the sensitivity of my hand holding the pencil, just as a person’s signature describes a kind of self-control. Each line has an individuality, and placed next to each other, sometimes layered in horizontal columns, sometimes just going from left to right across the page, I discovered that the pencil gave me an abstract vision of a state of mind. Each line is a stretched-out word in some sense, representing the subtlety of the hand, and I can’t predict the darkness of the line until the point travels in short or long strokes. The fact that I cannot control each mark makes it more engaging."

— Inger Johanne Grytting
Grytting's drawings are titled with a “T”, standing for “Tegning” ("Drawing"), followed by a number indicating the order of the work’s production that year, and finally the year itself.
- Inger Johanne Grytting, T 24, 2012
- Inger Johanne Grytting, T 5, 2011
2020s

18 Drawings Available

7 Selected Drawings Below, Others Available in Artwork Checklist

"With my recent work, I have measured out the margins of the drawing before I begin, and if I’m making a drawing with columns within it, I will decide if those will be made freehand or plotted out in advance."

– Inger Johanne Grytting
- Inger Johanne Grytting, T 8, 2023
- Inger Johanne Grytting, T 7, 2024
Installation Views
Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway

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Inger Johanne Grytting: Three Decades in Drawing | Installation View, Tegnerforbundet, 2025. Photograph by Øystein Thorvaldsen
Press & Reviews

Inger Johanne Grytting: Three decades in drawing
Klassekampen
Life's Imprint: In Inger Johanne Grytting's drawings, the lines meet in dance
May 21, 2025

"The interplay between the lines and between the black and the white changes from work to work. Now and then something seems to appear in the background, and the lines are occasionally broken by round shapes. Like much of the art that Grytting's reduced works are related to – the Tegnerforbundet has hung several examples in the basement – her works reward the attentive viewer with differences that become clearer over time. They spring from changes in pressure and speed..."

- Kåre Bulie
Kunstavisen
A look back at a subtle artistry characterized by a primal joy in making a mark
April 30, 2025

"Grytting's approach has previously been compared to Sol LeWitt's concept of "conceptual method," but where LeWitt insisted on a predefined process in which the essential qualities of the artwork were predetermined, transforming the execution itself into a question of minimizing the human, subjective element, Grytting is explicitly open to the undecided, to the small shades of difference that each individual stroke, each individual work, necessarily bears. The result is an understated drama, an expressiveness that is toned down to the bare minimum."
- Simon K. Nielsen, Art historian
Numer #137
Exclusive Interview with the Artist
Mar 27, 2025

For three decades, Grytting has explored visual tension in drawing, developing her own visual alphabet. Her rich and dynamic relationship with drawing remains as strong today as ever, and she continues to cultivate her personal approach to the art form...

Inger Johanne Grytting: Three Decades in Drawing: Traveling Exhibition Proposal

Inger Johanne Grytting (b. 1949)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Publications

“Drawing is like a conversation of images that describe an internal dialogue, where I discover things about myself.”

— Inger Johanne Grytting

Installation Views

Press & Reviews

Inger Johanne Grytting: Three decades in drawing

Klassekampen

Kunstavisen

Numer #137