“Painting is an action - it is performative. The process through which Kristine Øksendal’s paintings come into being - what happens between body and canvas in the studio - is no less important than the finished picture on the gallery walls.”
Øystein Sjåstad: “Becoming nature”, Scenes from the Garden, 2018, p.25
“The aspect of spiritual development in Kristine Øksendal’s production is evident in the playfully flowing expression of the dance elements while it is simultaneously being expressive.”
"Kristine’s work propose a coordinated painting with improvised movements, during her shows rhythm and sound is paraphrased with composition and colour."
Tatevik Sargsyan: “interview with Kristine Øksendal”, NABROAD's blog N|N, 2012
In her practice Kristine Øksendal explores parallel issues within the history of modern theatre, dance and abstract painting: ideas of utopia, gender, individual freedom in relation to movement and concept as a starting point for gestures. Øksendal’s improvised expressive style is characteristic, exploring the possibility of a feminine and female subjectivity within the historical canon of abstract expressionism. Central to the practice is a negotiation between pre-planned strategies and spur-of-the-moment ideas. Structured by re-occurring gestures functioning as her mantras. In the 2010s she has produced and presented a series projects researching gesture in relation to painting, subjectivity and gender. Analyzing physical memory and how color affects the subconscious.
Artist statement:
“In my latest paintings I try to create a sense of shift in balance and illusion of movement. Contrasting colours create a dynamic visual experience indicating space and kinetic energy, allowing for the viewers own interpretation. I'm also exploring memory and vision in relation to gesture. My work-process is intuitive and improvised, structured by repeated gestures functioning as re-occurring motifs and incantations. Interdisciplinary, but always based on issues within painting.”
“I'm under the Influence of natural light and colors throughout the Nordic seasons, where the colour temperature of the light is highly noticeable and ever changing, day by day, month after month. My paintings portray this light as it is dictated by my subconsciousness.”
Kristine Øksendal 2019
© Kristine Øksendal and BONO 2019
