Terje Roalkvam (b. 1948) is a sculptor, painter and silk screen printer. He grew up in Valen, Sunnhordland, but lives and works in Oslo.
Roalkvam was educated at the Norwegian School of Crafts and Design in Oslo (1971) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1972). His works have been acquired by numerous institutions, including the Office of the Prime Minister, Equinor, Norges Bank, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) – to name a few. Locally, his works are held by both Esso and Equinor. Roalkvam has held numerous solo exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
His time at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw gave him important artistic impulses, particularly through his teacher Tomaszewski and the influence of Polish poster art, which became a central source of inspiration. After returning to Norway, he joined the Nora-Gras graphic workshop in 1974, where he learned screen printing – a technique still relatively uncommon in Poland at the time. The workshop, located in the former Nora factory building, was a collective where members shared tools and equipment. The Gras group, which included artists such as Anders Kjær, Willi Storn, Morten Krohg, and Per Kleiva, helped establish political art as a distinct movement in contemporary Norwegian art.
His collaboration with Per Kleiva proved especially decisive for Roalkvam’s artistic development. Between 1976 and 1983, he worked as Kleiva’s assistant, both in the studio and on large-scale public art commissions, including Ellingsrudåsen School in Oslo and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences at Ås. Their collaboration culminated in the decoration of Østfold Central Hospital (1983), where they combined complete interior color design with visual art and signage.
Roalkvam’s work is characterized by a dynamic interplay between the wild and the cultivated. Natural elements are combined with precise pencil lines or machine-produced industrial forms. Since the 1990s, he has systematically explored combinations of materials such as aluminum and marble, cork, wood, and slate. Through this repertoire, he continues to explore new expressions and the balance between contrasting forms and material qualities.