Kistefos presents 2025 programme
December 16, 2024
In 2025, Kistefos will present an exhibition programme with works by three internationally renowned contemporary artists: Christina Quarles, Kathleen Ryan and Nairy Baghramian. Through the theme ‘The Corporeal and Intersectionality’, this year's programme invites an in-depth reflection on the body as both physical form and cultural symbol, while offering visually striking artistic experiences.
Quarles, Ryan and Baghramian have each established themselves as leading figures in the field of contemporary art. Their work ranges from Quarles' colour-saturated abstract paintings that explore complex identities, to Ryan's magnificent sculptures that blend humour and poignancy in their reflection on decay, and Baghramian's poetic marble sculpture that combines vulnerability and monumentality.
The programme at Kistefos offers a new context for these artists, giving Nordic audiences a rare opportunity to experience their groundbreaking work up close.
Through this year's exhibitions, as well as the innovative curatorial programme ‘Springbrett’, Kistefos continues to facillitate unique encounters between art, nature and architecture, highlighting new voices and perspectives in the international art scene.
EXHIBITION PROGRAMME
10 May – 12 October 2025
Christina Quarles, «Bless Tha Nightn’gale», 2019. Courtesy of Christen Sveaas Art Foundation.
The Twist: Christina Quarles
In The Twist, Kistefos will present a solo exhibition of large-scale paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Christina Quarles (b. 1985). The exhibition at Kistefos will explore questions around identity, gender, desire, perspective and human experience. Quarles’ works challenges conventional notions of the self, the body, and the boundaries that define them. Through employing her own perspective as a queer, multiracial woman, Quarles explores what it means to exist within a body, and the ways in which race, gender and sexuality intersect to form complex identities.
Nybruket Gallery and The Wood Pulp Mill: Kathleen Ryan
Spanning the historic industrial spaces of Nybruket Gallery and the Wood Pulp Mill, Kistefos will present a major solo exhibition of works by New York based artist Kathleen Ryan (b. 1984). Ryan creates spectacular sculptures in various sizes that are often reminiscent of everyday objects and food, such as rotten fruit. Using recycled materials of varying value, the artist stages contradictions between the organic and the artificial, which opens up for explorations of themes such as decay, decadence and desire – particularly in the context of today’s consumer society. The exhibition will be the first major presentation of the artist’s work in the Nordic region.
Nybruket Gallery, second floor: ‘Springbrett’ 2025
In the exhibition space on the second floor of Nybruket Gallery, Kistefos will, for the second year in a row, present an exhibition curated by the recipient of the Springbrett award. Through the project “Springbrett” (‘Springboard’), young curators are offered an opportunity to realize an exhibition concept based on works from the Christen Sveaas’ Art Foundation. The objective of the project, which is sponsored by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, is to support and promote new talent within the curatorial field.
Sculpture Park: Nairy Baghramian
For the season 2025 Kistefos is delighted to announce the 56th permanent work in the sculpture park: Resting Arms by the Iranian-born, German artist Nairy Baghramian. The sculpture is a highly abstracted portrait of primary joints in the body. Working in traditional sculptural materials of marble and steel, the artist challenges their typical connotations of durability and monumentality and instead highlights the vulnerability of the human form. At Kistefos, the sculpture’s vantage point will encourage visitors to find a moment for contemplation. This work will be Baghramian’s first in Northern Europe.