Ruben Steinum (he/him) is Director of Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA). As director, he represents the foundation and runs it according to the mission.
Steinum has his education from the Art Academy in Oslo (KHiO) and has held the position as elected president of The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (Norske Billedkunstnere - NBK) and Young Artists’ Society (UKS). Steinum focuses on arts rightful position in the center of society and the goal that everyone should have the same opportunity to pursue an artistic career on the basis of their effort and professional qualities, rather than economic and social background.
Staff and board
Staff
Toril Fjelde Høye came into the position as OCA's Head of Finance and Administration in December 2011 with a comprehensive background in business and administration, having completed her studies at Handelsakademiet in Oslo and leadership programmes at INSEAD in France and at the London Business School in the UK. Previous to her position at OCA, Fjelde Høye served as the Chief Financial Officer at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo from 2006.
Mike Sperlinger (he/him) is responsible for OCA’s public programmes, publications and for overseeing OCAs participation at the Venice Biennale.
Prior to joining OCA, Sperlinger was Professor of Writing and Theory at the Oslo Academy of Fine Art (2013-2024). Before moving to Norway, he was co-founder and assistant director of LUX (www.lux.org.uk), a London-based organisation for artists working with the moving image. Working variously as a writer, editor and curator, his interests are centered around the collective aspects of art experience.
Itzel Esquivel (they/them) works with conceptualization and research for the implementation and production of curatorial projects and programme at OCA.
Esquivel holds a BA in Fine Arts from The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and an MA in Curatorial Practice from the Art Academy in the University in Bergen. Esquivel has a long-standing and international institutional experience that started in 2015. Their curatorial practice is focus on performance and embodied practices from an intersectional and cuir/queer lens.
Esquivel acknowledges the different intersectionalities, positionalities and privileges from cultural workers and artists and is from this perspective that their curatorial work is rooted.
Michael Miller holds a Bachelor of Arts in photography from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art. Michael has worked as a freelance photojournalist and commercial photographer, and from 2015 to 2021 was the Communications Manager for Pikene på Broen and the annual international festival, Barents Spektakel. Michael has been part of the OCA team since February 2022.
Aspen began her career at Tate, the British art institution. From 2008 to 2014 she oversaw communications strategies for the global gallery Haunch of Venison and concurrently, she established her own advisory for clients in New York, London and Oslo. Relocating to Norway, Aspen took on a role at OCA where she coordinated major projects such as the 2015 Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and the Thinking at the Edge of the World Conference in Svalbard. From 2016 she was Director of OSL contemporary Gallery in Oslo, until 2022 when she was appointed Director for the Queen Sonja Print Award. Aspen has a substantial history as a consultant for prominent museums such as MUNCH, Kode Bergen, Kistefos and Wanås Konst.
Anne Charlotte Hauen (she/her) is the Grant Administration Manager at OCA and is responsible for the grant scheme processes, the jury, and is the connection between OCA and the applicants. She is managing the OCA Pop-Ups, and is also working with diverse administrative tasks as well as on the other OCA projects.
Hauen has a Cultural Management degree from the department of Communication and Media Studies, Université Vincennes-Saint-Denis (Paris VIII) in Paris. She worked at the Munch Museum with the administration of the museum shop, before she was employed at the Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium as museum staff and exhibition guide. Parallel to this she worked as a gallery coordinator for two galleries in Vestfossen. Anne Charlotte has been part of the OCA team since September 2008.
Eirik Zeiner-Henriksen (he/him) is Grant Officer at OCA covering for Anne Charlotte Hauen while she is on leave. He is responsible for the grant scheme processes, the jury, and is the connection between OCA and the applicants.
Eirik holds a Master’s degree in art history and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and Leadership from the University of Oslo. Since 2019 he has been a regular contributor to the Nordic art journal Kunstkritikk and has been leeding the working committee in the art section of the Norwegian Critics Association from April 2021 to April 2023.
Board Members
Trude Gomnæs Ugelstad is the Director of the Queen Sonja Print Award, the world’s leading award for graphic art.She was previously Artistic Director at Sørlandets kunstmuseum / Kunstsilo and has over 20 years of senior management roles at several national arts institutions in Norway. She has initiated and produced visual art and design projects in close collaboration with embassies in New York, Paris, Milan, London and Stockholm. She is working closely with the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and the Arts Council in Norway as chair for State Artist Grants. She served at the international and European board of World Crafts Council for six years.
Kristoffer Dolmen is Senior Curator at Nordlandmuseet in Bodø for their Bodø2024 program. He has worked at various art institutions in Northern Norway since 2001. He has also served on various boards and sat on a number of juries within the wider field of culture. Dolmen’s education includes master’s degree in curating and a cand. mag. degree in art history and cultural studies, both from the University of Bergen, and studies in museology and cultural management at Stockholm University. He has been part of a one year Post-Master program at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.
Sille Storihle is an artist and educator working with moving images and printed matter. From 2012 to 2020 they ran the queer-feminist platform FRANK, together with Liv Bugge. Storihle holds a BFA from Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and an MA in Aesthetics and Politics from California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, and is currently an Assistant Professor in Moving Images at Nordland School of Arts and Film. They have exhibited at M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Kunsthall Oslo, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, GiBCA – Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art and Performa, New York, among others. From 2016 to 2020 they were on the board of UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund/Young Artists' Society).
Stina Högkvist has since 2018 been the Director for Collections in the National Museum of art, architecture and design in Oslo. She has worked as a curator at the National Museum since 2006 and is among others behind exhibitions like Tori Wrånes’ "Hot Pocket", "Like før. Sidsel Paaske" and "Kjartan Slettemark. Kunsten å være kunst". Högkvist is an art historian from the University in Uppsala and holds an MA of the curatorial programme at Konstfack in Stockholm. In addition she has many years of experience as an art critic and a writer.
Hans Marius Graasvold is an Oslo based attorney. He works mainly as legal counsel and adviser for a number of culture and artists´ organizations as well as for individual creative artists. He specializes in copyright, contract, privacy and organizational law. He is formal legal director of the Norwegian Consumer Council, and has extensive experience with representation in various boards and dispute resolution committees.