The 113th Christmas Exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet

Nov 25th – Dec 23rd 2024

True to tradition, Kunstnerforbundet welcomes you to the Christmas Exhibition and fills the gallery’s two floors with art. Visitors can find both newly produced works of art and old treasures from around two hundred artists. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to experience a wide range of artistic expression and artistry. Keep reading …

The Annual Crafts Exhibition 2023 at The National Museum

20 October – 30 December 2023

Taking the pulse of contemporary crafts in Norway.  The Annual Crafts Exhibition is the largest annual display of Norwegian contemporary crafts. Anyone working with materials-based art in Norway can apply to take part, and this year saw 762 artists with over 2000 works seek entry to the exhibition. The final presentation consists 63 works by 56 artists.” Keep reading (NOR/ENG)…

Contextile 2022

Sept. 3rd – Oct 31st

One of the most significant international biennials for textile and fibre art: Contextile – Contemporary Textile Art Biennial, has for its 10th anniversary selected Norway as its Invited Country. In collaboration with Norwegian Textile Artists (NTK), Contextile is organising a Norwegian Textile Art exhibition as part of the biennial’s 2022 edition in Guimarães, Portugal. (Text from Norwegian Crafts) Keep reading …

Still from the video work “Sorting it Out” Anne Knutsen/ Karen Kviltu Lidal 2009. Foto: Courtesy of the artists

Solo exhibit: “My Architecture”

At Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo
11. Aug- 11. Sept. 2022

Lidal’s exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet consists of a series of sculptures in the form of wooden frames with and without hand-woven coverlets, åkler, placed around the space. Keep reading …

The exhibition is kindly supported by Arts Council Norway, The Bergesen Foundation, and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond (Norwegian Visual Artists’ Fund).

My Architecture, Karen Kviltu Lidal 2022.
Photo: Thomas Tveter, Kunstnerforbundet

HÅNDFAST: Symposium on socially engaged crafts

Saturday the 18th of June, Lofoten kulturhus
The symposium will weave together the themes in the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts (NK) Theme Exhibition 2022: “The Hands that Unravel the Sweater” and NK Nord-Norge’s exhibition “I kjølvannet”.” Here you will hear from both artists and other professionals about how material-based art can be an important way to express social and political engagement. Lidal will participate in a conversation with curator Anne Klontz and local artist/sheep farmer Ragnhild Lie (the conversation will be held in English).

Facebook event …

Artist talk: Making, Matriarchs and Mapping

Monika Mørck, ‘Svartsaum’, and Karen Kviltu Lidal ‘Closed Open (Striated)’,
The Annual Craft Exhibiton 2021, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum
Photo — Alf-Georg Dannevig (Dannevig Foto AS)

Norwegian Crafts and Sørlandets Kunstmuseum invite you to a
conversation between the artists Karen Lidal (NO), Monika Mørck (NO)
moderated by artist/curator and director of the Stockholm-based
gallery Fiberspace, Marcia Harvey Isaksson (SE).

Starting from the artists’ own practice, the conversation will revolve
around the panel’s interest in craft practices, knowledge passed on
from generation to generation and from place to place, making from
a female perspective, space, and body. Keep reading …
Sunday 28 November 2021, 2 PM (CET)
Sørlandets Kunstmuseum: Skippergata 24 B,4611 Kristiansand, Norway
Facebook event here

The conversation will be video recorded and published
online after the event.

The Annual Exhibition of Norwegian Crafts 2021

Opening at Sørlandet Kunstmuseum Kristiansand on Sat Oct 2nd 1400

2.10 – 28.11.2021 Sørlandets Kunstmuseum
Norske Kunsthåndverkeres Årsutstilling er den største årlige mønstringen
av norsk samtids- kunsthåndverk. Årsutstillingen har åpen innsendingsrett
og juryeres av NKs nasjonale jury, med mål om å ta pulsen på dagens
materialbaserte kunst. keep reading … (Norwegian)

Essay: Exposing Power Structures (On Karen Kviltu Lidal)

Curator, writer and philosopher Zofia Cielatkowska has written this poetic and philosophical essay. Read it on norwegiancrafts.no

“- Karen Kviltu Lidal’s works are not really objects, but rather
unfinished entities open to engaging in processes and performative
gestures. She moves freely between art forms such as weaving,
installation and video documentation, but textiles prevail as her
basic point of reference in both the metaphorical and literal sense.
This means textiles remain crucial, especially in relation to public space.
Exploring and measuring a city with a piece of fabric, which is soft,
means the fabric can bend and take on irregular shapes that enable
different possibilities and outcomes. This is much different than
measuring space with a conventional ruler that simplifies everything
into straight lines. And Lidal loves to measure and examine borders.”
Keep reading …