Ståle Gerhardsen (b. 1980) was born and raised in Trondheim. He is trianed as a Graphic Designer and has, in addition to working fifteen years in the design industry, been a festival director for a design festival, run a clothing brand, written and illustrated books, run a publishing house and given hundreds of lectures.

One fine day he quit his dream job to follow the dream of devoting himself completely to art. Ståle has been doing art since he was a teenager. Both with spray cans on the wall and pencil on paper. When he was 17, he was an exchange student in Barcelona where he really got a foothold for what art could be. In addition to standing in the studio at Can Serrat painting all day, he fell head over heels for Picasso and Dali and the way they broke rules and norms to be able to do their own thing, and has since always drawn on everything. 

In recent years, Gerhardsen has made a name for himself as an active artist. Both in galleries and in the streets. Some examples of Gerhardsen's activities: He has turned the Trondheim Art Museum into a large party (in collaboration with, among others, Tate Modern), He and Rashid Akrim won an award for the exhibition «Versus», at the UN Biennale in Berlin where he was invited to exhibit by Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art. He has had solo exhibitions in galleries all over the country and participated in group exhibitions at home and abroad. Ståle has decorated buildings and institutions all over, everything from the Grieg Hall in Bergen to several schools in Trondheim, culture houses in Oppdal, Institution in Bodø, facades in Kristiansand, Berlin, Røros, Los Angeles, Berkåk, Stockholm, London and Tromsø and much much more.

Gerhardsen works with painting on both canvas and wall. When he does not, he makes serigraphy, sculptures and other things he feels like doing.

Photo: Amanda Gerhardsen Vollen