Anne-Karin Furunes med separatutstilling i Seattle på National Nordic Museum
15. mars - 8. juni 2025
In Furunes’s first solo exhibition in a US museum since 2010, she will present paintings inspired by the historic and recent photography of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago situated between the North Pole and Norway. She studies the pioneering autochrome photographs captured by botanist Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen (1873 – 1943) more than a century ago, alongside more recent documentation of glacial recession and ice calving. The effects of the climate crisis are magnified and multiplied in Furunes’s monumental format and unique technique. Her perforated paintings on canvas are singular images that resemble the halftone process of printing.
Another group of paintings on display includes portraits of people from Finland, Norway, and Sápmi who were subjected to government-ordered sterilization and documentation between 1900 and 1939. Drawn from her “Of Faces” series, these haunting portraits raise awareness of the Nordic countries’ participation in eugenics practices in the early 20th century. Furunes finds in Sweden’s oldest library—Carolina Rediviva at Uppsala University—archived images of silenced, ignored, and persecuted individuals. She then translated these documentary photographs into large-scale paintings, portraits in the humanistic tradition. Through her powerful work, Furunes exposes the victimization of humans and of nature.
For more information visit nordicmuseum.org
This exhibition is organized by the National Nordic Museum Chief Curator, Leslie Anderson, in collaboration with the artist. It is offered as part of the National Nordic Museum's 2025 bicentennial celebration of Norwegian immigration to the United States.