STEVE JENSEN

For me, the image of the boat is meant to symbolize a voyage or journey. Perhaps it is the voyage to the other side or the journey to the unknown.

– Sven (Steve) Jensen

Steve Jensen has been a working artist for over 30 years. He comes from a long tradition of Norwegian fisherman and boat builders, growing up on his father’s fishing boat. His current body of work, “Böts”, explores the universal image of the boat.

From 2015 and 2021  Steve has solo exhibited at “SAM” Gallery, Seattle Art 
Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Foss Waterway Seaport
Museum in Tacoma, WA. and Museum of Northwest Art in LaConnor, WA., Vashon Center for the Arts, Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend, WA, and Schack Art Center in Everett, WA. This work was featured by Channel 9 “Art as Voyage: Steve Jensen’s Nordic Heritage” by Stephen Hegg.

For the past two decades, Steve developed a body of sculptural work derived from his experiences and the landscapes I encounter. The experiences encompass both his heritage and a broader contemporary circumstance. The landscape is our seas, waterways, forests, and mountains. The abundant beauty of the world’s available natural resources and the precariousness of the relationship that we maintain with them inspire him. It is this relationship that powers his Carvings.

The Voyager series, carved in wood or painted, is a direct result of these experiences. As humans, death is the one thing we have in common, and the boat in many cultures symbolizes a passage, or voyage, perhaps to the other side.