Kristian Skylstad (b. 1982, Oslo) has after completing his education at The Norwegian National Academy of Arts in 2009 become a central figure within the conceptual and post-medial contemporary art movement that arose in the 2000’s. He primarily works with photography, video, text collage, and installation. His works center around themes like the individual’s behavior and emotions, and through photography he explores interpersonal relationships. Skylstad’s pieces can be read as a staging of human emotional states, like boredom, apathy, powerlessness, and cynicism. He’s especially concerned with how people measure their own individuality and individual experiences against the whole of reality, in other words, a personal understanding of the external world in relation to one’s own thoughts and sensations. This can be seen in the photo series SIGHTS, a series of analogue photos Skylstad captured in Silesia, Poland.

“(…)the images can be read as a photographic Haiku poem. The photographer understands his limitations when faced with bloody war history and failed communist industry. He ends up jumping the shark, distilling whatever mysterious beauty is left. (…)The images are an aftermath, but give up in relief, and the results are Sighs, which are a pure and soft reaction that the body uses as a protection against being overwhelmed.” – SIGHS, QB Gallery, 2015

Skylstad has been a central voice in the Norwegian contemporary art scene for a long time, and has also been involved in establishing the showrooms NoPlace, Dollhouse, TAFKAG and Galuzin Gallery in Oslo. Previous showings include Østlandsutstillingen (2019), Fotogalleriet in Oslo (2019), OSL Contemporary (2014, 2011), Kurant (Tromsø, 2013), Utstillingsstedet Q (København, 2013), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (2012), Gallery D.O.R (Brussel, 2012) and MOMA – Moscow Biennale (Moskva, 2010). Skylstad also works as a curator and writer and teaches at Oslo Fotokunstskole.