Nordrom Kunst speaks with Mia Gjerdrum about her exhibition at Krane Gallery in Tromsø, relief painting, wood as a material, and her artistic process.

On 4 June 2026, Nordrom Kunst attended the opening of Mia Gjerdrum’s exhibition at Krane Gallery in Tromsø.

The exhibition marked the artist’s first presentation in the city and offered local audiences an opportunity to encounter her distinctive practice, which moves between painting, relief, woodcut traditions and sculptural approaches to wood. During the opening, we had the opportunity to meet Gjerdrum and discuss her work, leading to the following conversation for Nordrom Kunst. In this interview, she reflects on exhibiting in Tromsø, her relationship with wood as a material, and the unique artistic language she has developed through relief painting.

The exhibition opened on 4 June 2026 at Krane Gallery in Tromsø and remains on view at the time of publication.

Nordrom Kunst: Krane Gallery presents this as your first exhibition in Tromsø. What does it mean for you to bring your work here now?

Mia Gjerdrum To be invited to exhotbit at Krane Gallery and also collarborate with the great interior universe Hos Håkon is something I have been very exited about. To get invitations from Galleries around the country outside Oslo is something I always look forward to because I have the possibility to present my art to a new audiens. In Tromsø I already have a great audiens since Galleri Krane is my best-selling Gallery for grapich prints so fare. Therefore this is a great opportunity to present original work at this point. I also got to experience the north of Norway for the first time, and its has been a breathtaking week traveling from Bodø through Lofoten by car, thourgh Senja and Andøya to Tromsø.

Nordrom Kunst: In your work, wood seems to be more than just a surface. What draws you to this material, and how does it shape the way you work?

Mia Gjerdrum: The interaction between me as the artist and the material is important to me working with wood. “My physical effort scratching into the wood creates a direct connection between the material and myself. It feels like my nerve becomes part of the woodwork when I carve with intuitive approach” This is why working with wood as my main material has become my passion. Working with organic materials also adds additonal elemts like structures and ressistanse.

Nordrom Kunst: Your practice moves between painting, relief, sculpture and graphic work. How do you understand the relationship between these different forms in your artistic process?

Mia Gjerdrum: Relief painting is a seldom used hybrid technique that blends painting with woodcut – or, to be more exact, the relief effect is formed in almost the same way as when carving the block for a woodcut. The techniques are comparable, but relief painting is not woodcut.

In woodcut, the wooden block is carved, or “cut”, as the name implies, in order to form the motif, which is then reproduced in a printing press.

In relief painting, it is the other way round. The motif that is cut away works in its own right. It will not be reproduced or inverted.

The carving that forms the relief in the wooden plate is only the first step – what comes next is what makes relief painting so special. In step two, the paint is applied. I can paint the surfaces, which have not been carved, and down into the “open wounds”. I may also perform further carving and cutting after painting. And I can paint again.

It is these possibilities that make relief painting so special: It affords a distinctive combination of the physical, carved wood’s three-dimensional relief and the two-dimensional painted surface. The character and qualities of the wood influence both the expression and the perception: growth rings, and the structure, hue and fragrance of the wood are all an essential element of the distinctive expression.

The paint intensifies, underscores, plays with and accentuates the qualities of the wood. In relief painting, what one carves away becomes the motif and serves as the starting point for the process of painting. The combination of painting, relief and wood results in something entirely of its own. By way of the many possibilities that arise, either the carved or the painted motif can take the leading role in the work. At its best, the two exist in balance and coherence.

The qualities of relief painting are like nothing one can achieve with any other artistic technique.

Closing Notes

Mia Gjerdrum’s exhibition at Krane Gallery introduces Tromsø audiences to a practice deeply rooted in material exploration and the physical qualities of wood. Through relief painting, she has developed a distinctive visual language that exists between painting, sculpture and printmaking while remaining firmly connected to the character of the material itself. Her reflections reveal a process shaped by intuition, craftsmanship and experimentation, offering insight into a technique that occupies a unique position within contemporary Norwegian art.

More info about the artist: artmia.no