10.05 - 23.06 2025
Today I can't see the mountains,
but I know they are there.
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
Astri Styrkestad Haukaas’s practice is rooted in an exploration of the deeply interconnected relationship between humanity and the natural world. Through her paintings, she creates visual and emotional landscapes that traverse themes of memory, impermanence, and transformation. Inspired by the raw forces of nature—stones dislodged from mountains, rivers carving paths, and the interplay between destruction and renewal—her work becomes a meditation on what it means to exist as part of something much larger than ourselves.
Haukaas’s process is one of collaboration with her materials. Each piece evolves through a dynamic interplay of intention and chance, echoing the natural tension between control and surrender.
Much of her work is informed by her connection to landscapes—both those she has traversed physically and those she has inhabited emotionally. Whether walking through unfamiliar terrain in Iceland or reflecting on the absence of nature in urban spaces, her practice is an ongoing dialogue between inner and outer worlds. This dialogue is deeply personal yet universal, evoking the shared human experience of longing, loss, and connection. The recurring theme and inspiration of stones in her paintings serves as both a tangible symbol of memory and a metaphor for the fragments of ourselves that carry history, belonging, and transformation.
At the heart of Astri Styrkestad Haukaas’s work is a profound questioning of humanity’s role within the natural world. Her practice reflects on the paradox of our existence: the ways we strive to separate ourselves from nature while simultaneously yearning to reconnect with it. This tension is reflected in her paintings, which balance intimacy and vastness, detail and abstraction, and presence and absence. The works are not depictions of nature but are themselves acts of nature—products of time, interaction, and change.
By drawing on literary influences such as Rebecca Solnit and Donna Haraway, as well as philosophical reflections on impermanence and interconnectedness, Haukaas’s work transcends the visual to engage with larger existential questions. Her paintings invite viewers to pause and reflect, not just on the landscapes they encounter but on the landscapes within themselves. Through this lens, her practice becomes a space for contemplation—a reminder that we are, and always will be, a part of nature’s enduring cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Astri Styrkestad Haukaas (b. 1986, Norway) is a visual artist based in Copenhagen, working across media to create contemplative, tactile spaces of encounter.
The exhibition is open daily until June 23rd. For any further information or price list email us.