No Houses nor Gates/Ingen hus eller grinder
22.03-11.05.2025
Hå gamle prestegard

Link: Kritkk av Trond Borgen, Stavanger Aftenblad

Mona Orstad Hansen presents a series of paintings and sculptural frames in the exhibition spaces Stallen and Gamle Fjoset at Hå gamle prestegard. The various works engage in a dialogue with each other, as well as with the site and space itself. The paintings in the exhibition are based on a single format, creating a rhythmic repetition similar to the windows in the old barn. However, the format is then divided in width and height, generating new formats and a displacement between the works. By allowing the white spaces of the canvas to play a significant role in the paintings, they connect with the room, dissolving the boundary between the artwork and its immidiate surroundings.

The paintings are combined with sculptural frames that repeat some of the geometric shapes found in the paintings, functioning as an extension to the paintings surface. She often does not fully plan the sculptural elements but allows them to develop organically as they are constructed, enabling her to respond to and incorporate shifts and "imperfections" that occur along the way. The paintings consist of a light background color and a darker main color, oscillating between minimalism and complexity. Orstad Hansen is interested in how much or how little is needed for a painting to provide enough information.

Her artistic practice is an exploration of abstract painting. In recent years, she has focused on a simpler expression, often working with just one or two colors applied in sparse brushstrokes, frequently in a single, continuous movement across the white canvas. The defined color fields are subtly uneven, with the paint allowed to flow freely in certain areas. She has further used this as a starting point for an experimental approach where painting transitions into sculptural objects, adding a three-dimensional aspect.

In this way, an intermediate space emerges, where the painting is no longer "just" a painting but moves towards sculpture and architecture. Orstad Hansen draws from her experience in painting and seeks to transfer this knowledge into working with wood. Her work is rooted in an interest in painting as an object, introducing a spatial dimension.

The works in the exhibition are also part of an ongoing research project in which she explores pigments and binders. The pigments possess different properties and behave more organically and unpredictably than industrially produced colors. They have a matte quality that appears delicate, and when applied in thin layers, the colors can resemble watercolor. She is particularly interested in the tactile materiality that the pigments create.