John Hovig

I'm a visual artist. Mainly of drawings 

My primary interest is systems 

How do you create patterns systematic but dynamic? 

Where’s the line between chaos and constraint 

 

I have a background in software engineering 

Artificial intelligence 

I was a software entrepreneur for a while 

I dropped out and became a full-time dad (artist) 

 

Surrounded by systems all my life 

Systems help us structure information 

But I’d rather know: 

Can systems be interesting? 

 

And what's more interesting? 

The rules or the disruptions? 

My practice is about making work FROM structure 

DESPITE structure 

 

My abstract drawings use repeated gestures 

Regions of varying line density 

Some are looped, some angular 

But always connected (“single-line”) 

 

There's a tension between the lines 

Stitching together, pulling apart 

People say they look like animals, objects 

Handwriting, maps, music 

 

Or language 

Signs, symbols, glyphs, graphs 

(“from structure despite structure”) 

Yet asemic (“sound and fury ... signifying nothing”) (?) 

 

My portrait drawings use the same linework 

To fit photographed anatomy 

Another constraint 

More structure 

​

My patterns of small objects 

Sculptures and drawings 

Office supplies (homogeneous manufactured objects) 

Represent theme and variation / template and deviation 

 

Where else does this go? 

Real-world systems? 

What kind of deviations are interesting in systems 

That are physical ... technical ... or even financial?