Henriette Roka

Henriette Roka (b. 1975) is born and raised in Høvik, Bærum and now lives in Asker. Henriette has a BA Hons Foundation Diploma in Art & Design from Kent Institute of Art & Design, England and went to Hantverkscentrum in Tibro, Sweden for her gilding studies and education. After graduating, Henriette worked as a gilder for over five years in the studio of her late grandfather, painter Charles Roka in Høvik. She then moved to Røyken and set up a new studio where she continued her work. Henriette has executed several large commissions in gilding, including the prestigious task of restoring and gilding both His Majesty the King`s Ministerial chair and His Majesty the Crown Prince`s chair.

At the family exhibition at Galleri Albin Up, Oslo "The Legacy of the Kitch prince" in 2012, Henriette exhibited her own paintings for the first time. The exhibition marked the 100 year anniversary of her late grandfather Charles, who is known for his "Gypsy girl" paintings, both frowned upon by critics and loved by the public. The exhibition resulted in Henriette selling her first painting, which in turn inspired her to continue working, aiming for a separate exhibition of her own. In early spring of 2014 Henriette's solo exhibition "Here you leave today" at Sekkefabrikken in Slemmestad was a great success in the five weeks of its duration. In 2014 Henriette carried out five exhibitions in total.

In 2015 she had an exhibition at Galleri DC-9 at Fornebu, a solo exhibition at the well known gallery Pingvin in Oslo, which also has art from Elling Reitan, Ekatherina S., Jarle Rosseland, M.M.Malvin and Silvia Papas among other well-known artists in their stock.

2015 became a busy year for the artist. While she had her exhibition at gallery Pingvin, she also represented Norway with four paintings at the Salvador Dali Museum in Berlin on an international art exhibition.  Then Roka was invited to exhibit on gallery Pingvin`s 30th Anniversary Exhibition together with their national and international artists (mentioned above). Before the year ended you could also see her work at the Perspective of Receptivity digital-exhibition at the Palazzo del Turismo in Riccione, Italy.  

Roka started 2016 with an international group art exhibition by Reartiste at Gallery MC in New York. It was her painting of the smoking, bold guy which represented her art, and she was the only artist from Scandinavia. Because of the artist´s engagement, she was invited by Re:Artiste to start an international collaborative project #ICareFor; an art project for female artists around the world. 

Henriette started a collaboration with one of Norway´s largest house constructors Block Watne, and together they arranged the art exhibition Kunst i Hus in one of BW´s show houses. This extraordinary and exciting way to exhibit art had never been done before, at least not in Norway, -so in a way  the exhibition was an art historical event.  In the end of 2016 Roka attended at the Karmsund exhibition in Haugesund, before she went to NYC participate at yet another international exhibition in the big city. This time with her monks.

Today Henriette continues on creating more art works of her well known paintings of Mr. Smoke, the Inkbirds, the Monks, and her abstract serie she calls Emotions. Besides of creating art, she also arranges painting classes. 

Roka draws inspiration from various things she sees or experiences in everyday life. She likes textures and structures, and even if she does´t use many colors or materials, has her paintings often backdrops showing precisely this fascination. As of today and until now the painter with her background and the techniques she uses, developed her skills and style that could be described as expressionist and figurative.