Photo: Myriam Cohenca
Biography
Sandra Strømme (b. 1994, Oslo) is a Norwegian artist based in Monaco and Paris, working primarily in figurative painting and wood carving.
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Her artistic journey began with three years of intensive training under Norwegian master painter Bjørn Algrim. Building on this classical foundation, she went on to complete a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she refined her practice by integrating traditional Norwegian woodcarving techniques.
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Her work has been shown in group exhibitions across France and Norway, including “(IN)ERRANCE IV” at the Library of the Sorbonne (Paris), “Spirituality – Humanity – Ecology” and “A Mixed Bag of Brilliance” at Arthouse 11 Gallery (Villefranche-sur-Mer), and at Nordberg Kirke (Oslo) in an exhibition organised by the Lion’s Club. Her practice has also been featured in the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen.
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Before dedicating herself fully to her art, Strømme followed a diverse and international academic path. She holds a BA in Philosophy and a BA in History of Art from the University of Oslo, an MA in Medieval History from King’s College London, and a Master’s in Journalism from the École Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris. Alongside her studies, she spent several years working with the United Nations in communications, and has also worked as a freelance writer and editor.
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Statement
Sandra Strømme's work explores the symbolic dimension of human experience through a practice she calls Neo-Nordic Surrealism: a visual language shaped by Norse mythology, mysticism, personal memory, and the atmospheric landscapes of the North. Rooted in Surrealism’s fascination with the unconscious, her practice merges the mystical with the psychological, blending ancient symbols with contemporary introspection to give form to inner worlds that feel both timeless and deeply personal.
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In a fast-paced, hyper-rational society, her work proposes a quiet resistance: a return to interiority, and to the symbolic. She sees humans as beings shaped by the realm of the archetypal; by dreams, images, and narratives that speak beyond language, and turns to art as a way of making that inner symbolic world visible.
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A central motif in Strømme’s work is the Viking knot, which appears throughout her paintings and sculptural frames. These patterns echo the entanglement of time, symbolising the interconnectedness of past, present, and future. They also reflect the creative process itself—an intuitive act of untying inner knots, where emotion and meaning are gradually brought into form.
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Her influences include Carl Jung’s writings on the unconscious and archetypes, as well as the female surrealists such as Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, and Remedios Varo, whose works gave voice to feminine inner mythologies. She also draws on Nordic visual traditions, particularly those of Edvard Munch and Theodor Kittelsen, whose psychological and folkloric sensibilities continue to inform her own symbolic language.
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Trained in classical painting techniques, Strømme builds her compositions through layered glazes that reflect the care and slowness of traditional craftsmanship. Alongside painting, she reinterprets Viking woodcarving through CNC carving and hand-finishing, creating sculptural frames that extend the symbolic vocabulary of the works. These hybrid forms, which merge past and present, manual and digital, mirror the conceptual foundation of her practice: an exploration of time, transformation, and the inner architectures that shape who we are.