Iris T. Korsnes

(She/her)
Address: GSF studio med Marianne Karlsen, St. Halvardsgate 4, 0192 Oslo
Floor: 1
The studio is open Sunday 19 April from 12-17

Open map

In my artistic practice, I investigate social communities, with a particular focus on family structures and groups where collective identity, power and relationships are central. I am interested in how we present ourselves, what is hidden, and how norms and expectations shape behavior, self-image and belonging. Feminism is fundamental to my practice, where I use textile techniques both aesthetically and activistically. The quilt is central to my artistic language, serves as a supporting symbol for heritage, identity and collective narratives. I also work with printmaking and drawing, and explore how surfaces can be translated into spatial installations that activate the viewer sensually and bodily.

Drawing, printmaking, textile, quilt, installation

www.iristkorsnes.com

The work shows figures in pink, yellow, purple, orange and neon green, it can look poisonous. At the bottom is a half circle in light blue, and the background consists of black and gray that are divided diagonally from corner to corner. The work is hand-quilted.

Iris T. Korsnes, Radioactive Landscape, quilt, reactive digital textile print, 100 x 140 cm, 2025. Photo: Malene Økland.

The picture shows various figures as an abstract imagery that can be perceived as a crowd. The colors consist of a pink background, with black figures, with a brownish-red front. The work is both hand and machine quilted.

Iris T. Korsnes, The Noise of Existence, quilt, reactive digital textile print, 100 x 140 cm, 2025.

The work has a black highlighted shape as a relief, which stands together with a pink background. The black is cohesive and reminiscent of a blob of paint that has flowed downwards, giving it the illusion of an abstract idiom like a crowd standing close together for protection.

Iris T. Korsnes, Huddled Together, trapunto quilt, reactive digital textile print, 72 x 102 cm, 2025. Photo: Malene Økland

In my studio

In my studio, the audience can encounter ongoing processes, materials in work and works that are in motion. Visitors can see sketches, samples and unfinished works, and how ideas are developed through materials and work.

Planned projects and exhibitions

Fiber og fundament is a project that examines community, belonging and urban development through an expanded understanding of family themes. The project is based on local volunteer efforts, neighbourhood activism and collective action, and at the same time takes a critical look at how such engagement can be exploited by external actors, especially in property development and gentrification.
The project What Is Inherited examines female family history on the mother’s side through a feminist and biographical approach. The project is a posthumous collaboration between my grandmother, mother, me and my daughter, united through the textile craftsmanship that carries generations of knowledge and experience. I work with materials from my mother’s textile heritage and investigate the fabrics as carriers of identity, memory and community. Here, needlework functions as a cross-generational language – a silent but resilient expression of care, strength and continuity – and highlights how female experiences can be passed on through materiality and form, even where they have historically been underrepresented.

CV

Iris T. Korsnes

Member of: Norwegian Printmakers, Norwegian Visual Artists, Norwegian Arts and Crafts, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA)

EDUCATION
2023–2025
MFA, Medium- and Material-Based Art – Printmaking and Drawing, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway
2019–2022
BFA, Medium- and Material-Based Art – Printmaking and Drawing, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway
2018–2019
DTK – Bærum school of fine art (part-time), Norway
2014–2016
MA, Art History, University of Oslo, Norway
2014–2015
DTK – Bærum school of fine art (evening), Norway
2011–2014
BA, Aesthetic Studies, Specialization in Theatre Studies and Art History, University of Oslo, Norway

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2026- Group exhibition, Ski kunstforening
2026 – Group exhibition, Fogdegården Salong, Stathelle, NO
2026-2027 – Look around you, while you are (working title), workshops, exhibition, GSF, Oslo
2027 – HAG, duo with Kari Kolltveit, Club Ø, Oslo

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (in selection)
2024 – Imprints, Galleri Seilduken, Oslo
2022 – The Shelter, the display case, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
2017 – What you see, but do not know, City Hall Square, Oslo
2017 – We live here, Cyan Studio, Oslo
2017 – Mind Spin, The Deichman library Bjerke, Oslo

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection 2022–2025)
2025
– Liberty Art Award, Liberty Speciality Markets, Oslo
– NK 50 years, Norwegian Arts and Crafts, Oslo
– Echolocation, The Høstensjø Exhibition, Oslo
– Times Square Billboard Showcase, digital exhibition, New York
– Become something else, MFA graduation exhibition, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
– New members, Norwegian Printmakers, Oslo
– Young Arena, Hadeland Glassverk. Jevnaker
– Oslo Grafik, Galeria Neon, Wroclaw, Poland
– Munch’s Old Frames, Galleri Seilduken, Oslo
2024
– Christmas exhibition for Gaza, Club Ø, Oslo
– Offerings to a Stranger, MFA 1 Exhibition, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
– Being, Galleri Seilduken, Oslo
– Tightly pulling the rope to something, Akademirommet, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
– Processee, Galleri Seilduken, Oslo
2023
– Book Art, The library, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
– Christmas exhibition, Club Ø, Oslo
– Neighbourhood, Oslo Culture Night, GSF Fortet Cultural Centre, Oslo
– Together as to Gather, Momentum 12, Gallery F15, Jeløya, NO
2022
– Print Matters III, Galeria Asp, Krakow, Poland
– Feeding the Worms, Midtsundstad Kunsthall, Innlandet, NO
– International Lithographic Symposium, Tidaholm, Sweden
– Also available in Green, Trafo Kunsthall, Asker, NO
– The Scholarship Exhibition, Telemark Art Association, NO
– Jamsis, BFA Graduation exhibition, Oslo National Academy of the Arts

(more previous exhibitions available on request)

PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA REPORTS
2025 – Visual Art Journal
🔗 visualartjournal.com/2025/08/10/iris-t-korsnes
2025 – YouTube: Hva er kunst?
🔗 youtu.be/cKe4l6UOokM
2025 – Represent, Henie Onstad Art Centre
🔗 https://www.hok.no/arrangementer/represent

PURCHASING AND DECORATION
2022 – Purchased by Oslo National Academy of the Arts Library
2017 – Installation What you see, but don’t know, The Welfare Agency, Oslo Municipality

STIPENDS & NOMINATIONS
2025 – Nominated for the Liberty Art Award, Oslo 2025-26
2025 – Miscellaneous Grants for Newly Graduated Artists, The Norwegian State Artist Grant
2011 – Old Oslo Culture Grants, Oslo

TEACHING AND DISSEMINATION
2025 – Textile workshop «Represent», Henie Onstad Art Centre
2024 – Artist workshop for Young Art in Viken, Lillestrøm
2023 – Workshops by Ron Te Kawa’s exhibition, at Nitja Centre for Contemporary Art
2023 – Vinyl printing workshop, Galleri F15, Jeløya
2019–2023 – Lecturer in art history, DTK – Bærum School of Fine Arts
2019 – Lecture on Tracey Emin, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo

CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES
2024–2025 – Curator, Club Ø, Oslo
2011–2023 – Organizer and curator, various exhibitions during Oslo Culture Night, GSF Fortet Cultural centre