Mari Kanstad Johnsen at Entrée, Bergen

Entrée is proud to present the solo exhibition Inn til mosen (Into the Moss) by Mari Kanstad Johnsen. In this exhibition, we are invited into her visual world – a place between childhood and adulthood, between reality and dream. Here, the moss is not merely a theme, but a tactile landscape where all living things are connected, and everything breathes with the same rhythm.

In her works at Entrée, Kanstad Johnsen plays with proportions, magnifying the microscopic and juxtaposing it with familiar creatures. It can be experienced as an underwater landscape where past, present, and future flow together. One of her sources of inspiration is the Chauvet Cave in southern France, home to the oldest known cave paintings.

Through pencil drawings and watercolours, wall paintings and ceramic figures, she lets improvisation and the flow of drawing shape intricate universes that one can dive into – and lose oneself within. The works consists of organic compositions that address the loss of nature and belonging, both for animals and humans.

Rather than creating a dark vision of where our world is headed, Kanstad Johnsen seeks to form meditative tableaux that open up for personal reflection on possible futures – and on how we, the world, and nature are inextricably connected. Now, before, and onwards.

Mari Kanstad Johnsen (b. 1981, Bergen) lives in Oslo and works as a visual artist, freelance illustrator, and author. Her expression is full of childlike vitality, featuring strange animals and people. She was educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. She has illustrated several books, written children’s books, and completed commissions for, among others, Morgenbladet, The New York Times, Kunstløftet, and the National Museum. She has also created temporary wall paintings at Deichman Library and the National Museum, and permanent works at Nordnes School, Tøyen School, and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

She has exhibited widely in Norway and abroad and has received numerous awards for her work. In 2022, Dyrene sover (Bedtime for Bo) (with text by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, Aschehoug 2021) was named one of The New York Times’ten best children’s books of the year and was awarded The Most Beautiful Book of the Year in Norway’s Most Beautiful Books competition.