vailsymposium

Born 1966. Norway

National Academy of Art, Oslo

Academy of Art, Prague

Art Students League of New York

Vebjørn Sand trained at the National Academy of Art in Oslo, the Academy of Art in Prague and the Art Students League of New York.

Sand is recognized most for his public installations such as the phenomenal success of a 1997 winter outdoor exhibit of paintings from his expeditions to Antarctica. The installation, Trollslottet, attracted 180,000 visitors, becoming the largest audience for an art exhibition by a contemporary artist in Norwegian history. His second public installation, The Kepler Star, has become a symbol of Oslo’s Airport after inaugurating the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. His third project, the Leonardo Bridge Project, is the first civil engineering project based on a Leonardo da Vinci design to ever be constructed. The graceful footbridge just outside Oslo has been called “a bridge to everywhere…” by the Wall Street Journal and “…one of the five most beautiful bridges in the world.” by Wired Magazine. Sand envisions building distinctive bridgesebjorn sand in communities around the world based on Leonardo da Vinci’s elegant geometry.

Upon returning from his third trip to Antarctica where he built an ice bridge in 2006, Vebjørn Sand has built three ice bridges. These constructions, built with the threatened glacier ice, call attention to the fragility of the subcontinent and create a vibrant artistic response in the dialogue on global climate change.