Meet Nina Austnes

B. 1993 in Ålesund, Norway


Born in Ålesund, Norway, and currently living and working in Oslo, I work across printmaking, painting, installation, and drawing. My practice explores the lived experience of chronic illness and the often brutal encounter with everyday life for those who exist outside the norm.

Through layered materials and visual narratives, I investigate vulnerability, endurance, and the structures that shape whose bodies and lives are considered acceptable or functional. My work reflects on the tension between visibility and invisibility—how chronic illness can be both deeply personal and socially misunderstood.

By engaging with themes of fragility, resilience, and systemic exclusion, I aim to create spaces where alternative experiences of the body and daily life can be seen, acknowledged, and felt.

My work also engages critically with the systems that define productivity, normalcy, and value. In societies structured around efficiency and constant output, chronically ill bodies are often rendered inconvenient, invisible, or expendable. I explore how medical, bureaucratic, and social structures discipline bodies that cannot conform to normative expectations of health and productivity. Through my practice, I question who is allowed to participate fully in society, and what happens to those who are pushed to its margins.

Education

• Oslo national acadamy of the arts BA in Printmaking and drawing 2015 - 2019

• Ytre Kunstfagskole Visual Art 2012 - 2014

• Apprentice with Tom Eidsvoll Printmaking 2022 - d.d.