ABOUT
The Nordic Institute of Art is an independent organisation with the mission to stimulate the research on and interest in art history from the Nordic region in an international context.
The Institute co-organises exhibitions in close collaboration with museums and other institutions in Norway and internationally, as well as conferences and other events. The Institute also publishes monographs and catalog raisonnés, primarily on Nordic artists. It collaborates with museums, universities, publishing houses and collections in Scandinavia and internationally.
Dr.Phil. Knut Ljøgodt is a Norwegian art historian who studied at the University of Oslo, the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, as well as the Istituto di Norvegia in Roma. He received his Doctorate from the University of Tromsø. Ljøgodt has been a Curator in the National Gallery, Oslo, Director of the Northern Norway Art Museum, Tromsø, as well as Founding Director of Kunsthall Svalbard, Spitzbergen. He is today heading the Nordic Institute of Art, which he co-founded in 2017, and is also the chief editor of the Institute’s ongoing catalogue raisonné on Peder Balke’s oeuvre.
Dr. Ljøgodt is a scholar on Nordic and European 19th century art, including Romantic landscape painting, history painting, Symbolism and the Pre-Raphaelites – and has also worked extensively with modern and contemporary art. Among other fields of interest could be mentioned history of collecting, museology, and art from the Arctic areas.
Ljøgodt has curated and co-curated several exhibitions, including Svermeri og virkelighet (Munich School in Scandinavian Painting), National Gallery, Oslo 2002; Wild Nature: Swiss and Norwegian Romanticism: Paintings from the Asbjørn Lunde Collection, Northern Norway Art Museum, Bergen Art Museum and Scandinavia House (NYC) 2007–08; David Hockney: Northern Landscapes, Northern Norway Art Museum 2012; Peder Balke, National Gallery, London 2014; Visionary Romantics: Balke – Lucas – Hertervig, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid and Stavanger Art Museum 2023; The Atlantic Ocean, Henie Onstad Art Centre, Oslo 2024; and the upcoming Edvard Munch: Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London 2025 (in collaboration with Alison Smith).
Ljøgodt is the author and co-author of a series of publications, such as Historien fremstilt i bilder (Scandinavian History Painting), Pax 2011, Knud Baade: Moonlight Romantic, Orkana 2012, Paintings by Peder Balke, National Gallery, London & Yale University Press 2014 (with Chris Riopelle and Marit Lange),Treasures: Selected Works from the Collection of Northern Norway Art Museum, Teknisk Industri 2016, Sverre Bjertnæs, Arnoldsche Art Publishers 2019 (with Joakim Borda-Pedreira), as well as Peder Balke: Sublime North: Works from The Gundersen Collection, Skira, 2020. In addition, he has regularly contributed to different academic periodicals and anthologies.
DIRECTOR Dr. Knut Ljøgodt
joakim@nordicart.org
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Joakim de Borda-Pedreira, MA
Joakim de Borda-Pedreira studied law and economics at Lund University, where he graduated BA in Art History (2007). He took post graduate courses at Goldsmiths College, London, and graduated MA from the University of Oslo (2023) with the thesis “The Conversion of Saint Mary Magdalene. A Discursive Analysis of Female Iconography in 17th Century Viceregal Peruvian Painting”. Borda-Pedreira specialises in European Modernism and Latin-American colonial art, as well as contemporary art and design. He has published extensively on contemporary and Latin-American art, and has curated a number of exhibitions which places contemporary art in dialogue with historic artists. Since 2014 Borda-Pedreira has been the managing director of several Norwegian art institutions such as the Associations of Norwegian Art Centres (KIN), Format Oslo, and RAM galleri.
Borda-Pedreira is currently PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Seville, working on a monographic thesis on the 18th century painter Melchor Pérez Holguín.
simen.k.frantzen@nordicart.org
+ 47 402 94 718
PROJECT COORDINATOR AND RESEARCHER Simen Korsbrekke Frantzen, MA
Simen Korsbrekke Frantzen studied for a BA in Culture, Criticism, and Curation at Kingston University (Kingston School of Art), graduating in 2022. He then pursued a postgraduate degree at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where he earned an MA in 2023.
His thesis, “Reimagining Venice: The Basilica of San Marco and the Language of Ornament,” explored the interplay between the visual language of ornament, built forms, and spatial relationships. He examined how the connection between environment, art, and architecture can transform not only a building's surroundings but also its function and meaning.
Frantzen also works with modern and contemporary art, and has a particular interest in the School of London artists of post-war Britain. His other fields of interest include decorative arts, the history of fashion, and portraiture.
annfalahat@hotmail.com
+ 47 924 95 225
RESEARCHER AND SENIOR RESEARCHER Ann Falahat, Art Historian, Cand.Philol
Ann Falahat studied art history, history, and classical archaeology at the University of Oslo and the Istituto di Norvegia in Roma. She holds a postgraduate degree from the University of Oslo with a thesis (2007) on the Norwegian water-colourist Hans Johan Frederik Berg (1813–1874).
With extensive experience in museum and exhibition work, Ann has been associated with both the National Gallery in Oslo and the art market. She has authored numerous catalogue entries for exhibitions and contributed articles on Norwegian artists to biographical dictionaries, both in Norway and internationally.
Her areas of expertise include 19th-century Norwegian art, European Orientalism, Islamic art, and the arts of the Islamicate world.
Ann is an agent for AXA XL Art Insurance – Nordic Branch.
Currently, Falahat is attached to the Nordic Institute of Art as a researcher on the Peder Balke Catalogue Raisonné project.
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION