Exhibition text Renaud Loda (translated from french)

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For this autumn season, Smallville is pleased to welcome the Norwegian artist Milan Benza (*1988). A native of Saint-Aubin, the painter will travel from Oslo for his first solo exhibition, accompanied by artist Laetitia Khiara, who will enliven the opening with an original performance.

Milan Benza, close to the “new Neuchâtel school” with its humor, or to the Sainte-Croix school* through its bucolic romanticism, paints what surrounds him—or what could surround him. In his works, the fishermen and workers of the industrial region of Østfold are transformed into curious creatures. Revisiting Nordic folklore with the help of an ever-expanding contemporary bestiary, the artist’s canvases are populated not by the water nymphs, gnomes, and Nordic elves of Peer Gynt, but by internet characters such as Pepe the Frog or Troll Face.

A red ant, a bottle of red wine, two bottles of red wine. Shhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhh, Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Shhhh, Shhhhhhhhhhhhh, the wind rustles softly in our ears. The branches twist at right angles, the easel sways dangerously. Nothing can oppose or halt creation, which freezes reality and thus renders it immortal.

Shhhhhh, shggrrr, grrrrr. In the distance, a large Claas combine harvester carries away wheat and inspiration.

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*School of worker painters (Pontarlier – Le Locle), grouped around the painter Robert Fernier (1895–1977).

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