Masoud Alireza: 56 Million Lines
GALLERY: TEGNERFORBUNDET → Address: Rådhusgata 17, 0158 Oslo
In the exhibition 56 Million Lines, Masoud Alireza explores drawing as a spatial and physical event. The artist creates large-scale installations consisting of dense graphite lines on paper that extend beyond the two-dimensional surface. In this way, drawing becomes not just an act that can be seen, but something that can be experienced as a material presence.
What happens when a line refuses to represent, yet insists on existing? Can drawing be perceived beyond the eye — as weight, as tension, as movement in the air?
Masoud Alireza's practice is rooted in drawing, which he approaches at the threshold of its own limitations in order to extract new forms and functions from the medium. Rather than representation, his work investigates drawing as a material and spatial condition. T
Photo: Guttorm Glomsås.
he exhibition at Tegnerforbundet continues his ongoing exploration of what he defines as de-drawing – a gesture in which drawing moves beyond the narrative and transforms the nature of perception and encounter.
"As drawings, the heaviness and size of Masoud's installations transcend the format of drawing and become landscapes, or maybe rather weather. Hanging there in the gallery as a dark, greyish river, the works might be seen as a series of heavy black clouds entering the landscape. As 'a darkness falling from on high'."
– Frans Jacobi (excerpt from his 1781 text: When the night comes falling from the sky, written on the occasion of the exhibition.)
Masoud Alireza (b. 1985, Tehran, Iran) graduated with a Master's degree in Fine Art from the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD) at the University of Bergen. He has participated in a number of national and international exhibitions, including at Tag Team Studio, Bergen (2025), Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal (2024), Telemark Kunstsenter (2023) and Hordaland Kunstsenter (HKS) 2022. He has also received several awards and scholarships for his work, including the Art Student Scholarship from Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond (2018) and Norske Kunsthåndverkeres debutantpris(2022). Masoud Alireza currently resides in Bergen.
ABOUT TEGNERFORBUNDET
Tegnerforbundet (TF) - the Norwegian Drawing Center is centrally located in Kvadraturen in Oslo. We work to show the breadth of drawing and to promote the discourse around drawing as an art form. Our vision is to be Norway's foremost communicator and champion of drawing.
Our premises at Rådhusgata 17 house a large and modern gallery where four to five exhibitions are shown a year. We also carry out educational projects and events focusing on drawing for adults and children, professionals and drawing enthusiasts, as well as those who want to become one.
TF is also the publisher of NUMER , Norway's only journal for drawing, illustration and book art. NUMER is published three times a year and sent to subscribers in and outside Norway. The magazine is free for TF members, and interested parties can purchase NUMER in TF's gallery, at Teksallmenningen and in the book salon at Litteraturhuset in Bergen. NUMER's digital platform numermagasin.no offers reviews, interviews, artist portraits and the latest news in the field of drawing nationally and internationally.
Professional practitioners with a focus on drawing can organize themselves in Tegnerforbundetby applying for membership . TF is a member of Norske Billedkunstnere (NBK) and TF's board works together with NBK to improve members' conditions and rights. As of today, TF has approx. 600 members .
Tegnerforbundet is part of the network collaboration Kunst i Kvadraturen (KiK) and is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Equality, the Norwegian Illustration Fund and the City of Oslo.
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