The National Museum Of Norway Presents Major New Exhibition On Contemporary Craft

The National Museum of Norway presents ART·HAND·WORK, an ambitious new exhibition exploring contemporary craft today.

Set across two thirds (1600 m²) of the museum’s spacious Light Hall, it will feature around 100 works by more than 90 international, Nordic and Sámi artists including Bouke de Vries (Netherlands), El Anatsui (Ghana), Hanne Friis (Norway), Irene Nordli (Norway), Máret Ánne Sara (Norway), Maria Bang Espersen (Denmark), Rui Sasaki (Japan), Stian Korntved Ruud (Norway), Yinka Shonibare (United Kingdom), and Bjørn Båsen (Norway). Spanning ceramics, textiles, glass, metal, wood, video and large-scale installations from the last 25 years, the exhibition reflects the growing tendency among artists to transcend disciplinary boundaries and rethink material practices.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Norske Kunsthåndverkere (the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts), the exhibition is presented in collaboration with Kode in Bergen and the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum) in Trondheim, where it will travel throughout 2026. Featuring works from each institution, it draws predominantly from the National Museum of Norway’s extensive collection of art, crafts and design, underscoring the museum’s commitment to cross-disciplinary exhibitions that engage with contemporary cultural discourse.

The exhibition is organised around six key themes that reflect the diverse concerns and approaches of crafts today. ‘Materiality’ will feature artists who push the physical and sensory boundaries of their chosen media. These include Rui Sasaki’s Liquid Sunshine / Hakuu calling from Bergen in Oslo (2025), whose phosphorescent glass bubbles emit light; and Máret Ánne Sara – the artist selected to create the 2025 Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall – whose work Gutted – Gávogálši (2022) explores Sámi identity and politics through organic materials such as reindeer stomachs.

‘Craft Traditions’ will highlight the revival of ancient techniques – a response to our increasingly digital and dematerialised world – by artists such as Stian Korntvedt Ruud, whose Daily Spoons (2014) consists of 365 unique hand carved spoons made from various types of wood gathered around the world, an experiment in daily manual making. Meanwhile, ‘Decoration’ questions longstanding hierarchies by reclaiming ornamentation as both meaningful and political – seen vividly in works like Yinka Shonibare’s Venus de Milo (after Alexandros) (2016), which challenges classical ideals and colonial histories through bold pattern and symbolism.

Themes of identity and memory surface in ‘Everyday Life’, where familiar objects become poetic vessels for personal and collective histories, as in Bouke de Vries’ 26-foot installation inspired by the sophisticated 18th-century banqueting centrepieces. In ‘Recycling’, discarded materials are transformed into powerful new narratives, such as El Anatsui’s monumental assemblage Breaking News (2015), which explores issues of consumption, transformation and the environment. Finally, ‘Post-Industry’ reflects on the aesthetics and loss of manufacturing, with artists like Bjørn Båsen interrogating the legacy of mass production.

‘ART·HAND·WORK celebrates the dynamism and relevance of contemporary craft, and asserts its lasting importance as an art form in its own right,’ says Knut Astrup Bull, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Norway. ‘It showcases how craft has evolved from its roots in function and form into a field that embraces conceptual thinking, experimentation and interdisciplinary exchange. While many of the works engage with urgent global questions, they are also grounded in local histories and traditions of making.’

The exhibition is co-curated by Knut Astrup Bull and Inger Helene N. Stemshaug (the National Museum of Norway, Oslo); Steffen Wesselvold Holden (National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Trondheim); and Morten Spjøtvold, Peder Valle and Anne Britt Ylvisaaker (Kode, Bergen). It will travel to National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Trondheim in spring 2026, and Kode, Bergen in autumn 2026.

‘ART·HAND·WORK is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase the diversity of our collection in craft. This is one of our biggest exhibitions this year and we hope to inspire a broad audience with the works ranging from the tiniest pieces to large-scale installations,’ says Ingrid Røynesdal, Director at the National Museum of Norway. ‘This exhibition would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the collaboration with KODE in Bergen and the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Trondheim. It truly highlights the strength and depth of our collections, and we look forward to the dialogue they create together.’

ART·HAND·WORK is accompanied by a new publication, Dangerous Liaisons: ART·HAND·WORK, which will feature eight newly commissioned essays on the language, status and relevance of craft in today’s art landscape.