View to the City Hall.

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Astrup Fearnley Museet

Top choice in Aker Brygge & Bygdøy


This private contemporary-art museum resides in an arresting, silvered-wood building designed by Renzo Piano, with a sail-like glass roof that feels both maritime and at one with the Oslofjord landscape. The collection is rich in American work from the '80s (artists such as Jeff Koons, Tom Sachs, Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince are well represented), but boundary-pushing pieces by other key artists such as Sigmar Polke and Anselm Kiefer reflect a now-broader collecting brief.

Its most famous piece remains, however, the gilded ceramic sculpture Michael Jackson and Bubbles, by Koons, and there are also large, challenging works by Damien Hirst. The temporary shows range from the monographic, say Dan Colen or Norwegian artist Fredrik Værslev, to thematically tight, curated surveys such as New Norwegian Abstraction or Chinese conceptual work. There are guided tours (50kr) at 2pm and 3pm each Sunday..


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