Torbjørn Rødland (b. 1970, Stavanger, Norway) makes photographic images that pointedly address their viewers, evoking a wide range of emotional and intellectual states. Curiosity, humor, criticality, artifice, reverence for the natural world, and romanticism appear throughout his work and often in the same image. Rødland also emphasizes the formal attributes of his photographs, pushing the medium toward modes of visual expression more commonly associated with painting, and forging links between 20th century art photography and 21st century approaches to image-making common to advertising and social media. Often prompted by non-photographic imagery that he transforms into real-world photographic subjects, Rødland portrays scenes designed to generate psychological reaction through his depiction of highly sensory qualities. The physicality present in the work is driven by his use of film-based cameras and chemical darkroom processes.

Torbjørn Rødland has been the subject of many institutional exhibitions, including Fifth Honeymoon, a traveling exhibition produced by Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2018-2019). A selection of Rødland’s solo exhibitions include Fondazione Prada, Milan (2018); Serpentine Sackler Gallery (2017); C/O Berlin (2017); Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway (2014); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2010); P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York (2006); and Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway (2003). His work is in the permanent collections of museums that include Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; Malmö Art Museum, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Rødland lives and works in Los Angeles.