Welcome to the 2026 art season at Kistefos
December 10, 2025
9 May – 11 October 2026
The 2026 exhibition programme at Kistefos will allow the public to immerse themselves in the resurgent role of painting in contemporary art. The programme brings together artists from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation who, in different but related ways, explore the painterly process as both a physical action and a psychological experience. This year's programme highlights how these artists expand the language of painting – through the use of materials, movement, perception and the relationship between image and viewer – while also showing how their work is rooted in historical and cultural contexts.
With works by Ragna Bley, Ida Ekblad, Oscar Murillo and Albert Oehlen in The Twist, a comprehensive solo exhibition with Issy Wood at Nybruket Gallery, and a monumental new sculpture by Dana Schutz, Kistefos invites the public to encounter artistry that demonstrates the continued relevance and expressive power of painting. In autumn 2026, yet another ambitious new sculpture—by the French artist Marguerite Humeau—will be unveiled.
The Twist: When I'm in My Painting
The group exhibition When I’m in My Painting presents a focused investigation into contemporary abstract painting through the work of Ragna Bley, Ida Ekblad, Oscar Murillo and Albert Oehlen—artists represented in the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation and Collection.
Nybruket Gallery: Issy Wood
In 2026, Kistefos will present a solo exhibition at Nybruket Gallery featuring London-based artist Issy Wood (b. 1993). The exhibition marks her first major presentation in the Nordic region and gives the audience an opportunity to immerse themselves in an artistic oeuvre that has received considerable international attention in recent years.
Nybruket Gallery, 2nd floor: Springbrett 2026
For the third year in a row, Kistefos is presenting an exhibition curated by the recipient of the Springbrett fellowship. Springbrett gives a young curator the opportunity to realise an exhibition based on works from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. The project is supported by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB.
Sculpture Park: Dana Schutz
This spring’s addition to the sculpture park is by celebrated American artist Dana Schutz. Since the early 2000s, Schutz has championed painting and its central role in contemporary art practise. Schutz' struggle with gravity kept her from working with sculpture until 2019, when she exhibited her first sculptures. Weighing thirteen tons and cast in bronze, the new work at Kistefos is the largest and most ambitious work Schutz has created to date. Schutz is known for creating complex, allegorical narratives that explore art's ability to represent subjective experiences. The figures in her works often find themselves in seemingly impossible situations, and Schutz's universe can be experienced as a dystopian image of today's world.
Sculpture: Marguerite Humeau
This autumn, Kistefos will unveil an ambitious new sculptural project by the French artist Marguerite Humeau, situated in the southern forest zone near the river. Comprising a transformed walkway that gestures toward a return to the earth, and a monumental steel tree pigmented with plant-based colour, the work establishes a contemplative dialogue between river and forest—between the viewer and the sculpture itself. The piece will also produce an elixir, stored in glass vessels, symbolising the tree’s inherent vitality.