Toril Kojan

Painter, poet, art therapist, and educator

Images / Kristian Jøraandstad Words/Charlie Jarvis

Between roles as an art therapist, educator, and founding editor for an art magazine, Toril Kojan has always painted. Now, her focus is her art, what she calls “the food for the soul”.

Toril Kojan has had an astonishingly varied life. Before making a commitment to her art in the early nineties, the visual artist, painter, and poet had already enjoyed a diverse career as an air hostess, advertising copywriter, and product manager at the Norwegian Design Council. She even had time to write a screenplay for the award-winning film producer, John M. Jacobsen. Yet, it was the art magazine she founded and edited for fifteen years, Kunst for Alle (‘Art for All’), that gives her most pride.

"I had long been surrounded by artists and, at that time in the nineties, I was attending many art courses myself," Toril tells us. "It was then that I noticed there was no serious art magazine for amateurs in Norway. So, I decided to leave my role in advertising and set up Kunst for Alle. I edited it by myself until 2010 and it had ten thousand subscribers for a time. Later, I sold it to Fineart and, now called Kunst, it’s the largest art magazine in the Nordics—I am really proud of that!"

And rightly so. But now, Toril has put most of her commercial work aside. “I’m so happy I can be working on my own art and my own paintings and not have to deal with lots of other things!”, she tells us, laughing. “I’ve been in this studio now for about seven or eight years. It’s a good, big space where I feel I can express myself. Because, for me, expression is painting, more or less.”

Toril’s painting works in the tension between abstraction and figuration. Across her work, enigmatic characters and creatures stand among complex, beguiling scenes led by colour. “My paintings come

Who is watching? Acrylic on panel, 60 x 60 cm

Love conquers all. Acrylic on panel, 60 x 60 cm Getting ready. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60cm

All my gifts. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

from inside,” she explains. “I let nature and colours inspire me, but I take them in and they come out again digested. My work is mostly abstract, but there’s always something recognisable—and there are some messages to be seen.”

Yet, what those messages might be is up to the viewer, Toril continues. “When I see a painting is finished, I give it a title—'The Kiss’, ‘Rebellion’, ‘Acceptance’. That’s what I see, but other people may get something quite different. It’s often really surprising how completely different it is what other people see in my work.”

While she now dedicates much of her time to her painting, she hasn’t quite given up everything else. Firstly, Toril’s students still make up a big part of her life. “I studied art at Nydalen Art School—and I have had incredible teachers myself throughout my art career. So, I now show my students what I learned from my own teachers. Teaching is so fulfilling—to see your students succeed and be happy with what they’re doing. It gives me so much!”

And then, of course, there is art therapy—a practice that encourages psychological healing through art. It is a practice in which Toril is trained and from which she has benefited a lot in the past herself. “I think art therapy has made me much freer,” she says. “It’s a fantastic way to loosen up and find your possibilities. You don’t know what will come out. It’s your inner self that speaks. It’s really powerful.”

Yet, Toril’s art now comes first. “I’m painting as much as I can these days—and, between my students and different courses I teach, I exhibit at art fairs and shows across Scandinavia.” One that’s coming up is Art Nordic, Scandinavia’s largest art exhibition, which will see thousands of people descend on Copenhagen over a weekend in November. Toril will be among artists from across the world who come to exhibit and sell their work. “I am excited,” Toril says. “It is so good to be able to go to exhibitions again!”

Finally, is there anything else that Toril is excited about? Her response is simple and humbling. “Resting, painting, and having a good life.” Instagram / @torilkojan kojan.no