Anne-Karin Furunes
January 15 - June 13, 2027
Spanning three galleries, Anne-Karin Furunes presents a selection of monumental works by the acclaimed Norwegian artist in her first museum exhibition on the East Coast. Bringing together pieces from several major series, the exhibition transforms the museum through an immersive interplay of image, light, and space. Moving between historical inquiry and technical innovation, Furunes’ work reexamines the history of image-making while offering new ways of seeing and remembering.
Trained in both art and architecture, Furunes draws on scientific, historical, and archival research to explore pressing social and environmental issues, from the legacy of eugenics in Scandinavia to the realities of glacial recession on Svalbard. Archival photographs, the Scandinavian landscape, and a distinctive labor-intensive process are central to her practice. Working by hand, Furunes perforates large-scale canvases with thousands of punch holes of varying sizes, creating images that emerge through the passage of light. As illumination shifts across each surface, figures and landscapes appear and dissolve, transforming static images into dynamic, atmospheric experiences. The resulting works invite viewers to slow down, move through space, and engage deeply with themes of memory, history, and perception.
Images:
(top) Anne-Karin Furunes, Of Faces II (Portraits of Archive Pictures), 2016. Acrylic on canvas, perforated. 98 3/8 x 177 1/8 inches. © Anne-Karin Furunes; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
(right) Anne-Karin Furunes, Calving Glacier III, Kongsbreen, Svalbard, 2018-2022. Acrylic on canvas, perforated. 94 1/2 x 94 1/2 inches. © Anne-Karin Furunes; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
About the Artist
Anne-Karin Furunes (b. 1961, Ørland, Norway) is a leading artist of Scandinavia in painting and public commissions. Since 1992, Furunes has developed a signature technique of perforating canvas or metal that considers photographic and digital elements of space, light, and material. The punctured holes in her canvases mimic the halftone process, most popularly used in periodicals, though Furunes does not employ a computer to create the image but composes it manually. Substituting ink for light, she creates a star pattern on a diagonal grid, cutting each hole by hand to create an image through the way the human eye perceives light. Furunes works from archival photographs, departing from the original she deliberately adjusts color, cropping, light and perspective. This method of removing to reveal complements Furunes’s research-based practice that frequently focuses on forgotten histories and people, transforming archival photographs into portraits that emphasize an individual’s experience.
Furunes received her degree from the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art in Norway. In 2021, she was nominated for the ARS Fennica Award in Finland. Her work has been the subject of important solo and group shows at the National Nordic Museum, WA (2025); Vigelandmuseet, Oslo, Norway (2024); Hå Gamle Prestegard, Nærbø, Norway (2023); Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway (2022); Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark (2018); Fondazione Musei Civica, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy (2017); Palazzo Fortuny, in conjunction with the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2015); EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2014); International Print Center, New York, NY (2013); Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY (2013). She is represented in prominent public collections worldwide including Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Kistefos Museum, Norway; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Museum of Art, Trondheim; National Museum Beijing; and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. Furunes lives and works in Stjørdal, Norway.
Large-scale commissions of her work have been realized at Oslo’s Barcode Project; Deutsche Bank, Sydney; St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim; the Trondheim Airport; and The National Theatre Station, Oslo, among others. In 2021, she was nominated for the ARS Fennica Award in Finland.
She is represented in prominent public collections worldwide including the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland; Kistefos Museum, Norway; Museum of Arts and Design, NY; Museum of Art, Norway; Palazzo Fortuny, Italy; National Museum, China; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway and the Tromsø Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway; among others.
Image: Anne-Karin Furunes, Portrait of Mikkel Josefson Neckela (1882/83), 2019. Acrylic on canvas, perforated. 63 1/4 x 56 3/4 inches. © Anne-Karin Furunes; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.