The artist zooms in on stains, tears, or other trivial traces of surfaces that indicate use and the passing of time. In the paintings, Austreid adds optically disorienting qualities and light phenomena that indicate a different, perhaps digital, reality. In the paintings, the light helps shape the subject of the image. The light is manifested on the surfaces as reflective or penetrating and describes the surfaces as closed or open. Several works are motivated by overlapping and conflicting light sources, which create subtle logical gaps.
Sketches in the form of photographs on paper are processed by hand in small tableaus before being re-photographed. In the alternation between manual and digital processing, the subject of the image is gradually reshaped and perspectives are disturbed, affected by the light and what the lens captures. With this material as the starting point for the paintings, Austreid immerses herself in colour shading and the modelling of surfaces and applies the paint in thin layers with barely visible brushstrokes. What remains after a long process are paintings in which the origin and identity of the objects pictured are shifted and formal qualities emerge. The work reflects the entanglement of technological and manual methods of creating images and is a place for the exploration of ratios and spatial perception.
The exhibition title refers to a film technique, “Day for Night”, where a night scene is originally filmed in daylight. The technique creates a strange light that can be perceived as a paradoxical mixture of day and night.
Kristin Austreid (b. 1985) lives and works in Bergen. She received an MFA from the Art Academy in Bergen (2014). She has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Entrée, Bergen; Galleri LNM, Oslo; and Haugesund Kunstforening. She has participated in several group exhibitions, including at Kristiansand Kunsthall; Stavanger Art Museum; QB Gallery, Oslo; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; in addition to Høstutstillingen and Vestlandsutstillingen. Austreid’s work has been acquired by Bergen Municipality, Oslo Municipality, Equinor Art Collection, Haugesund Billedgalleri’s Collection, and Burgdorf City Collection, Switzerland.
The exhibition is supported by the Visual Artists Compensation Fund and Arts Council Norway.
