Once an Olympic snowboarding champion, Norwegian artist Danny Larsen’s path to painting has been anything but conventional. After surviving a near-death accident and grappling with long-term depression, Larsen turned away from the high-adrenaline world of sports and began his introspective journey into art. Now, his debut London exhibition “Twilight of a Day” marks a major milestone in his career transformation.

A comparison of a forest and a lake

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Twilight Fading, acrylic and marker pen on linen canvas, diptych in two parts, 120cm x 160cm

Opening from 11-17 June at London’s Gallery 8 in Duke Street St James’s, the show features Larsen’s most ambitious body of work to date–atmospheric, meditative landscapes in his signature “neo-pointillist” style. Infused with extraordinary detail, the paintings capture the fragile beauty of spring emerging across Norway, China, and Uganda which offers what viewers call “a moment of calm within the bustling urban landscape.”

Larsen’s story is as compelling as the work itself. Once representing Norway at the highest level of professional snowboarding, Larsen walked away from the sport forever after a serious injury forced him to re-evaluate his life. “I’ve been struggling with pretty heavy depression since I was a little kid,” he explains, and “my paintings are just those moments where I can see the light.”

That sense of quiet revelation permeates the works created in his studio in Hønefoss, Norway–coincidentally just a direct view from where Edvard Munch painted “Infirmary at Helgelandsmoen” in the 1880s. “It feels like he was here last week, sketching,” Larsen says, since “the trees I walk under now are the same ones he walked under then.”

Larsen’s paintings are more than landscapes; they are romantic, hypnotic canvases celebrating the divine beauty and power of nature, simultaneously embracing the darkness within the light.

A close-up of purple flowers

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Purple Flowers, acrylic and marker pen on linen canvas, 90cm x 70cm

A fascination with the natural world is intrinsic to his practice, seeking out treasure within ordinary and crystalising apparently unremarkable experiences as moments of glory.

“Larsen falls in a tradition of Norwegian artists, such as Lars Hertervig and Theodor Kittelsen, who draw and paint from Nordic nature, but manage to rise above and beyond it.” – Einar Duenger Bøhn, Professor of Philosophy, University of Agder.

“Twilight of a Day” follows a series of successful shows in Norway and the UK, including 2022’s “From the Shadows” at RedHouse Originals in Harrogate, and 2021’s “Darkness at the Kittelsen Museum.