Pressemelding —
Issy Wood’s first solo exhibition in the Nordics opened at Kistefos
Kistefos presents Fish, Fish, Duck, a major solo exhibition by London-based painter Issy Wood at Nybruket Gallery. Opened on 9 May 2026, the exhibition marks the artist’s first major presentation in the Nordic region. The exhibition offers audiences an opportunity to engage with a distinctive artistic practice that has gained significant international attention in recent years.
Wood is known for her psychologically charged paintings, which combine intimacy, alienation, and cultural critique. Drawing on sources such as the internet, advertising, auction catalogues, and popular culture, she creates carefully composed, atmospheric works that explore desire and power, vulnerability and objectification.
The exhibition comprises self-portraits in both large and small formats, alongside an array of animals and household objects rendered on the artist’s signature velvet-stretched and linen canvases. In addition, Wood has created a painted chaise longue specifically for the exhibition.
The exhibition title, Fish, Fish, Duck, is borrowed from a 2025 painting in which a split velvet canvas reveals a beige ceramic duck with a glossy blue bow, alongside fish-shaped cookie cutters arranged against a black backdrop. Both seductive and withholding, the work reflects a central aspect of Wood’s practice: the repetition of objects and the intuitive, often unexpected, connections between them.
At Kistefos, a wide selection of new and earlier works is brought together to reflect the playful, slightly disorienting rhythm of Wood’s associative logic. Through a distinctive and understated humour, she imbues her motifs with an uncanny presence that speaks to contemporary aesthetics, consumer culture, and emotional life. Set against the industrial backdrop of Nybruket Gallery, the works take on additional resonance, prompting reflection on shifting relationships between objects, value, and identity.
The exhibition is structured around two thematic frameworks:
Ways of Seeing draws on the legacy of John Berger to explore vision, mediation, and the gaze. Wood’s paintings examine how we look at objects, others, and ourselves, revealing layers of power, ideology, and technology that shape perception.
The Artist as Archivist focuses on Wood’s practice of collecting and reworking images and objects into an intuitive, affective archive. Her engagement with art historical traditions such as vanitas, portraiture, and still life situates her within a broader lineage of artists concerned with accumulation, memory, and display.
The exhibition is curated by Live Drønen and Kate Smith-Raabe.
Issy Wood (b. 1993, Durham, NC) is a London-based artist. She completed a BA in Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London (2015), and graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London (2018). Recent solo exhibitions include Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2025), Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2023), and Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London (2019). She is represented by Carlos/Ishikawa, London, and VenKlasen, New York and London.
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Kistefos was established in 1996 by the Norwegian businessman and art collector Christen Sveaas on the site of his grandfather’s former wood pulp mill. Today, Kistefos brings together art, architecture, and industrial heritage within an extensive sculpture park set in scenic natural surroundings. The institution presents annual exhibitions by leading national and international artists in its two galleries, The Twist and Nybruket Gallery. The award-winning building The Twist functions as a gallery, a bridge, and a sculptural landmark.
Kistefos continues to develop. A new visitor centre, designed by Lund Hagem Architects, will open in 2026 and include a café and museum shop. In 2031, a new museum building designed by Christ & Gantenbein is planned for completion. It will house both permanent and temporary exhibitions based on Christen Sveaas’ art collection.
