Avgangsutstillingen 2026

Friday 17 April, 18–21, the graduation exhibition of the Art Academy opens at Oslo Kunstforening! 23 newly graduated artists from the bachelor programme will present their work and fill the entire building at Rådhusgata 19.

This year's artists are Benjamin Aaron, Isak Austin, Ånund Engebret Berger, Line Berget, Andrea Berner, Julius Carlsson Jeansson, Mathias Eugen Engen, Viktor Lier, Mattis Kristian Hansgaard, Isabelle Aimeé Mar Bastidas Johannesen, Rosa Kristalova, Patrick Kuoppamäki, Jonas Meurer-Lunde, Embla Alvrun Uma Vegardsdotter Moe, Lidiya Solomon Muluberhanu, Anton Samuel Olausson, Ebbe Marienborg Schieldrop, Nana Marika Umetani Schulze, Ananta Serendipity, Thando Beau Sikawuti, Thea Tuset, Owidia Hedda Marie-Louise Antoinette Delmas Reistad Wesenberg and Alexander Magnus Øvreås Wille.

PROGRAMME FRIDAY 17 APRIL FROM 18:00 
– Welcome by Elisabeth Byre, chair of Oslo Kunstforening 
– Speech by dean Antonio Cataldo 
– Introduction to the exhibition by curator Ifrah Osman 
– Student remarks by Mattis Kristian Hansgaard 
– Opening speech by artist Vanessa Baird

Performances on the opening evening by Ånund Engebret Berger, Line Berget, Mathias Eugen Engen, Isabelle Aimeé Mar Bastidas Johannesen and Owidia Hedda Marie-Louise Antoinette Delmas Reistad Wesenberg.

The curators of the exhibition, Ifrah Osman and Antonio Cataldo, state:
The exhibition marks the 20th anniversary of the first-ever BA degree exhibition in Norway, which took place at the Stenersenmuseet in 2006.

The artists, who began their studies at the Art Academy in 2023, present their work with a focused sense of urgency and ambition. As they step into Oslo Kunstforening, many for the first time addressing a large public audience, they do so with practices shaped through sustained inquiry and shared exploration.

Working across painting, performance, photography, sound, text, and installation, the exhibition brings together a wide range of approaches to form. For some, systems, repetition, series, or research provide a framework. For others, form emerges through material investigation and image-making, allowing surfaces to register time and revision, and bodies to test exposure and relation, while sound amplifies and deepens perceptual experience, shaping how the space is encountered.

Rather than advancing a unified position, the exhibition unfolds as a set of distinct investigations into scale, labour, perception, and attention. The works engage their conditions without attempting to resolve them, affirming the value of sustained artistic practice. What begins here does not end with the exhibition. It continues in the forms of attention, commitment, and inquiry these artists carry forward.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 3 May. Opening hours are Tuesday to Friday 12–17, and Saturday to Sunday 12–16. We are closed on 1 May.