If I have to present myself and my work, it is easiest to begin from the start and tell my origin. My mother comes from Slovakia (the country that for many years was the other part of Czechoslovakia, and not the country that so many mistake for Yugoslavia, where there was war).
I have spent all the summers of my childhood there with my grandmother and it was also the language I first learnt.

I was born in Gothenburg but grew up on the countryside by the sea in a little town called Henån. I grew up with antique furniture around me and all of my family had an interest in art and collected pretty pictures. Of course this affected me and my way of seeing beauty in historical art. This way of looking at art and the fact that my mother is a very talented illustrator and my father earned a living as a painter in Gothenburg, influenced me from early childhood to always look at myself as an artist. And my goal was to go in my parents path. I never wanted to become anything else.
When my father Nick Nygård early passed away I inherited his pallet, brushes and easel. Even if his way of painting was not similar to my way I felt I had to carry on his mission. All the same I inherited his passion for art and skills for everything practical. My little sister from his side studies art as well. So that all of my family has something to do with art.

I studied in Trollhättan where me and my mother moved and where there also was a high school, specialized in art. I studied there for four years. I had great teachers and an even better group that made me to improve myself and strive further on with my work. I can tell you now after I have finished my studies that what kept me going was my fellow-students and from which I have also learned the most skills. I had the luck or fortune to always be in such groups that were good and competitive. That can do wonders with almost any student.
I always loved painting and admired realism, but who really inspired me to begin painting as I do, was the famous and controversial Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum. I even considered going to study as his apprentice, but then decided to move and study in Slovakia. My paining has never been copying his way of painting but what I admired in some of his paintings is the plainness and mysteriousness of such things as a brick, pear or a baby wrapped in tissue.

The fact that I always loved going to school made it easier for me to get into the school that was the first on my list - The Academy of fine arts and design in Bratislava, Slovakia. The fact that I already could speak Slovak made it easier for me to get accepted at this school.
For six years I studied there and learnt the skills of painting and sucked in all the knowledge of mastering old techniques I could. Me and my ex boyfriend spent almost every awake moment in the studio painting and learning more about painting. Until the school forbid it, we even slept there in the studio and the best paintings were done at night. We painted all classic topics, like stillife, portrait, nudes from live models and landscapes in the summers. We had five hours per week of drawing live sight size models and we also painted models sight size. When I started my studies at this school the trend was conception art and object and we who wanted to paint classic were not trendy. We had to fight battles with our Professor and I had to be strong minded to keep on doing what I did.

-Noemi Nygard

 

Resume:

Born 4.2. 1979 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Father Nick Nygård, artist, painter from Gothenburg.
Mother Renata Grünwald Nygård illustrator and art teacher.

Education:
1995-1999 art gymnasium Trollhättan, Sweden.
1999- 2005 Academy of fine arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovak, prof. Jan. Berger.

Expos among others:
1998 Trollhättan Gallery, selfportraits, Sverige.
2002 Presentation of students work at prof. J. Berger, Komárno, Slovak.
2003 Kulturhuset Ružinov i Bratislava, Slovak.
2003 Café Galéria i Bratislava, Slovak.
2003 Kulturhuset Grundsund, Sweden.
2003 Scanraff, Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
2004 Kultúry dom, Grundsund, Sweden.
2004 Ecce Homo-Ikon city gallery i Nitra, Slovak.
2005 Galeria Prokop, Slovak.
April 2005-Mars 2006 the salon of young people in Europe,
Montrogue, France.
Armante, Portugal.
Catalunya, Spain.
Salzburg, Austria.
Genova, Italy.
2006 The house of the people in Vänersborg.

Own expos:
1999 Trollhättans arthall, Pumphuset, Trollhättan, Sweden.
2004 Henåns library, Henån, Sweden.
2006 Trollhättans arthall, Pumphuset, Trollhättan, Sweden.
2007 Konstfrämjandet i Västra Götaland, Uddevalla, Sweden.

Examensarbeten:
2004 Academy of Fine Arts and Design i Bratislava, Duetto, reconstruction of two paintings.
2005 Academy of Fine arts and Design, The technology of beauty or about spiritual realism.