Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and educator who has conceived of several exhibitions, publications, seminars and lecture series. They have a strong interest in artistic and curatorial collaborations as well as developing the language that surrounds art productions of today, linguistically, spatially and structurally. Curatorial and editorial projects by Szefer Karlsen will generally host an international roster of artists and other contributors. They have taken on a number of positions of trust within the Norwegian and Nordic art context and is increasingly invited to speak on contemporary art at home as well as internationally, and to teach and lecture in formal and informal education. They is Professor Curatorial Practice and currently programme director for MA Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (former Bergen Academy of Art and Design) (2015–2021), and was Senior Adviser for Bergen Assembly (2018–2020) and Director of Hordaland Art Centre in Bergen, Norway (2008–2014).
Szefer Karlsen was curator for The Norwegian Sculpture Biennale 2015 entitled Art Belongs to Those Who See it at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo; curator for Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF 2013 (with Bassam el Baroni and Eva González- Sancho) entitled Just what is it that makes today so familiar, so uneasy? and Associate Curator for Research and Encounters for Biennale Bénin 2012 – Inventer le monde: l’artiste citoyen (artistic director: Abdellah Karroum). They have convened several large-scale international discursive programmes, latest the conferences ‘Experiences of Oil’ (co-curated with Helga Nyman) at Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger 22–24 November 2020 and 'Humans of the Institution' (co-curated with Vivian Ziherl) at Veeem House for performance, Amsterdam 25–27 November 2017.
Szefer Karlsen's writing has appeared in journals such as Afterall, Billedkunst, Kunstjournalen B-post, kunstkritikk.no and in artist monographies, and anthologies such as Plasticity of the Planet: On Environmental Challenge for Art and Its Institutions (Mousse Publishing, Mediolan and Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, 2019), Of(f) Our Times: Curatorial Anachronics (Sternberg Press, 2019), Condition Report: Symposium on Building Art Institutions in Africa (Hatje Cantz, 2013) and Making Biennials in Contemporary Times (Biennial Foundation/ICCo – Instituto de Cultura Contemporânea, 2015). Szefer Karlsen was series editor for ‘Dublett’, a book series featuring artists’ works through anthologies and artists’ books (Hordaland Art Centre, 2012–2016), was co-editor of Self- Organised (Open Editions/Hordaland Art Centre, 2013) and Lokalisert/Localised (Ctrl+Z Publishing, 2009).
