Page 25 - Art at Mayfair Tunneln

Henrik Olai Kaarsteins ‘Correspondence Skirt’ 2019 140x118cm.
Henrik Olai Kaarstein’s work ‘Correspondence Skirt’ is part of a series of works, the expression of which is reflected in bags of various kinds such as suit bags, backpacks, travel bags, etc. Of- ten, as is also the case here, he paints bird motifs on his bags, which turn into distinctive studies of an inner imaginary world. The bags become in a way a kind of portraits, where the birds be-come
personal characteristics of people he has met throughout his life or sides of himself that express his own, but also the human, complex nature.
The work of Henrik Olai Kaarstein centres around the investigation of and the interplay of materi- ality and the sensitivities and interrelation of colours, surfaces, strokes of paint and crayon and the mash up of unorthodox painterly media. From found and available material he creates works with bold expressions in both form and colour. The work maintains a very individual feel with the juxta- positions of colours and subject matter entirely his own.
Henrik Olai Kaarstein was born in 1989 in Oslo, Norway. He lives and works in Brussels and Oslo. He graduated from Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main in 2015. Exhibitions
include “Sun and Spring in January” Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Nordic Contemporary
Art Collection (NoCo) Hameenlinna Art Museum, Finland, “Towards a New Nepotism”, Galerie Italy at Etablissement d’en face, Brussels, “Slutten” Kristiansand Kunsthal, Kristiansand, ”New Promises” at C-o-m-p-o- s-i-t-e, Brussels. His work is acquired by the collections of The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Kistefos Museum and Nordic Contemporary Art Collection (NOCO) among others. Henrik Olai Kaarstein is represented by Gether Contemporary, Copenhagen.
25