Mikael Øye Hegnar

Mikael Øye Hegnar is a Norwegian artist who was born in Oslo in 1984. He graduated from The Academy of Fine Art in Oslo in 2010 and currently lives and works in the same city. Hegnar's work explores the use of different media to apply paint to canvas in various ways, which helps him to distance himself from his own art. He uses a combination of traditional painting tools and hand-made ones like knives, scrapers, trowels, sticks, cloths, rags, and brushes to brush, pour, push, and print pigmented pastes onto the canvas. His repertoire of media includes oils, raw pigments, and traditional wax encaustic, which allows chance compositions to emerge seemingly out of nowhere.

Hegnar's landscapes feature hastily sketched figures and patterns that possess an immediacy, which is a result of a careful reconfiguring of the tools used to scratch and carve them. Hegnar's art is notable for its ability to highlight the tension between the random and the controlled, resulting in a visually arresting experience. His works have been exhibited in several prestigious venues in Norway, including Kunstnerforbundet, QB Gallery, and Galleri BOA in Oslo and Elephant Kunsthall in Lillehammer. In 2021, Hegnar's work will be on display at Kristiansand Kunsthall in Kristiansand.