In December, we are focusing on artworks created with oil paint on canvas, a classic medium with a rich history. Oil painting has roots that stretch back to the Middle Ages and has been used by countless artists over the years. This medium allows for impressive depth and texture, making it possible to create vibrant colors, contrasts, and intricate shadows.

Oil on canvas continues to fascinate and challenge artists, and this technique is likely to remain relevant for a long time to come as an ever-pertinent form of expression. At QB Gallery, we have several artists who work with oil painting in unique ways, and through this article, we aim to present their works.

Bjørn Båsen (b. 1981, Eggedal, Norway) has a BA from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth and an MA from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Båsen’s works invite the spectator into a whole new world. His skillful perspectives make one feel as though you could take a leap and fall into his illusion of a blissful wonderland. However, in his world of porcelain puzzles, cracks are always present and propped with references to deep and often dark matters. Båsen’s oeuvre is filled with references to mythology, past and present decadence – the fairytales of former glory meet the realism of today.

His work is included in the collection of the Astrup Fearnley Museum, KODE Art Museum, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, The Grieg Art Collection, Equinor Art Programme, Stavanger Kommune Art Collection, DNB as well as numerous private collections nationally and abroad.

Elin Brissman (b. 1982, SE) is educated at the Art Academy in Bergen.

She paints photorealistic windows, doors and house facades. In her works, no action or people are shown, only worn surfaces, walls and reflections in the glass. Details in a windowsill can give a vague idea of its anonymous inhabitant. Her works are based on places she has been, and collectively they become a collection of post-war modernist facades that most people would pass by without a glance.

Endre Aalrust (b. 1973, Hamar, Norway) is a Norwegian artist and film maker living and working in Berlin. He studied History of Ideas, Sociology, Art history at the University of Oslo (1992 – 1997) and art at the National Academy of the Arts in Bergen (1998 – 2002).

Aalrust’s work is driven by an interest in questioning hegemonic ideas and power structures - be it in intimate relations, in families, between friends and lovers, in art, language or politics. When painting, he borrows from a source book of awkward design, kitsch and maudlin sentimentality. Visually he plays with traditional painterly genres such as portrait, landscape and still life. His motifs, however, are more frequently collected from memes, dating apps and lifestyle blogs rather than art history or literature. Humor plays an important role in his works, often combined with feelings of bashfulness and shame. Despite his works’ often jokingly lightness, the onlooker is left with an undefined feeling, questioning whether the works are authentic and touching or silly and devious – not unlike the feeling one might get after scrolling through too many Instagram reels or having spent a whole sunny day inside watching an average series on Netflix.

His work is included in the collection of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany, Museum By Art Matters, Hangzhou, China, Oslo Kommunes Kunstsamling, Norway, Equinor Art Programme, Norway, Innlandet Fylkeskommune, Norway and NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.

Lars Morell (b. 1980, NO) is educated at the Oslo National Academy of Fine Arts.

Over the past few years, Lars Morell has created a complex and diverse body of work consisting of photographs, sculptures, and installations. Morell’s work has always encompassed and questioned the visible/invisible and what seems to be something that it is not. In numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally this iconography has been thoroughly developed, and in his recent works distorted shapes, which now “grow” over the canvas, are constructed from imagery in his previous works – paintings, sculptures and drawings. We see colored constructs that at first glance are reminiscent of branching root systems; we recognize the outlines of chains and hooks – and thus again objects that are used in illusion and deception. Morell develops these works out of figuration and sees them as distorted still lives, as a dilemma between abstraction and representational painting.

Morells works is in numerous private collections as well as the Malmö Art Museum, Sørlandet Art Museum, Equinor Art Programme, KLP and the Hoff Collection.

Sebastian Helling (b. 1975, London) received his BA from the London College of Printing (2001) and has a double MFA from the Royal College of Art in London (2003) and the Oslo Art Academy (2011).

Helling’s work with painting and drawing is neither abstract nor figurative, neither gestural nor compositional. Layers of artistic languages overlap and deny each other. In the same spirit, his wish for communication (or anti-communication) is trapped within the relevance of the artwork. What we are presented with, then, are explosive drawings and canvases with splashes of paint and text, sometimes spray painted on, at other times applied with a brush and then stroked and smudged with his fingers. It is this tension between the positive and the negative that allows him to focus his work on the final outcome rather than a specific narrative or particular reference point - rather, they are embodiments of Helling’s constant tearing apart and building back together again, an endless cycle of nature.

Helling is recognized as an important voice on the national- and international art scene and has been acquired by influential national- and international institutions and collectors.