Throughout 2025, Kristen has been on a flexible artist-in-residence at Trykkeriet. Given this prompt & invitation, she has explored ways of approaching printmaking linked to her current practise in painting and botanical dyeing.
The resulting works challenge traditional notions of print through the use of unrepeatable actions, applying plant matter as both print matrix and dye extraction concurrently. (Steam-extraction and resist dyeing, namely). The plants represented within these pieces span two continents and two landscapes the artist is familiar with– both of which propagate through root systems and whose presence indicates a specific topography. The framed series, using pressed flowers to resist dye, features the wood anemone– a common sight in early spring in the shady and undisturbed forest around Bergen. The free-hanging print on silk, produced this summer while the artist was on residence in Canada, features leaves of the quaking aspen– a tree that thrives in sun and is quick to establish itself on disturbed sites, especially after a fire.
Stems thus considers the notion of the indicator, both of the wider narrative contained within a forest and of the processes evinced within each print. In foregrounding test strips, ghost prints, and transparencies, the print is understood as a branching network of possibilities– a landscape of sharpening and dulling attention, of rising and failing light.
Kristen Keegan (b. 1988, Canada) has been based in Norway since 2017. Her work explores multifold approaches to image-making and abstraction – recently, through craft traditions such as botanical dyeing and printing. Open, conversational material processes give rise to diverse outputs, including painting, artist books and installation. In whatever iteration, her work considers embodied ways of seeing, using the language of colour to make room for slowness, attention, and ease.
Kristen completed her Master’s in Fine Art at The University of Bergen in 2019 and has since exhibited at venues throughout Scandinavia, including Entrée, Kunsthuset Kabuso, LNM, Konstepidemin, Årsutstillingen, Høstutstillingen and Hordaland Kunstsenter. She has participated in residencies in Finland, Iceland and Norway, as well as The Banff Centre in Canada. Her work is held in public collections including the University of Bergen, Stavanger Library, and KODE museum. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include CommonOpulence: wishcraft (Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, Canada, 2025) and a three-person exhibition at SOFT Galleri (Oslo, Norway, 2026).