Per Maning - 2002

Per Maning (b. 1943) is a Norwegian artist who works with photography and video. He has, with his black-and-white portraits of animals, achieved a leading position on the Scandinavian art scene.

Maning is represented in major national and international collections, and has exhibited in prominent institutions in Scandinavia and Europe.

In 1995 he was the Norwegian representative in the Nordic Pavillion at the Venice Biennial. In 2002, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo hosted Maning’s largest exhibition to date, including many of his classic portraits of the dog ‘’Leo’’ and other animals that have become typical for the artist’s preferred range of motifs. For this show, Maning also produced several new video installations, combining the moving image with sound in the exhibition spaces.

Maning’s works appeal to a broad audience, mainly due to their universal human character, where the portrait of the animal reflects back onto the beholder and enables us to learn more about ourselves. Maning is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo.