The Espolin Gallery sits beside the Lofoten Museum at Storvågan and is dedicated to the work of one artist — Kaare Espolin Johnson (1907–1994), whose dark, dramatic depictions of northern Norwegian fishing life made him one of the most popular Norwegian artists of the 20th century. The collection was donated by Espolin Johnson himself to Vågan municipality.
It is a small, focused gallery, easy to take in within an hour. The works are unsettling and beautiful in equal measure — fishermen on storm seas, drowned crews, half-glimpsed figures in pitch darkness. Combined with a visit to the working harbour outside, it gives a strong sense of what the Lofoten fishery actually meant for the men who took it on.