Detai of the installation by Jared Theis and Kristina Austi.

Kristina Austi (formerly named Kristina Daukintytė Aas) was born in 1978 in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Austi lives in Bergen, Norway. She works with digital jacquard weaving, embroidery, installations, video, and collage. She appeals to our tactile sense through conscious and stable craftsmanship in her works. She questions our understanding of perception and our relationship with our surroundings. Kristina graduated from Bergen Academy of Art and Design in 2011. Since 2013, she has primarily worked with digital jacquard weaving— a technique that combines the traditional approach to woven surfaces with new digital technology. She works part-time as a textile designer at Innvik AS, a weaving mill in Western Norway.

Jared Theis was born in 1977. He earned an MFA from the University of California, Davis 2012. While in California, he received the Joan Mitchell MFA Grant and the Robert Arneson Award. In 2014, he was awarded a State Artist Grant from the Norwegian Arts Council, Oslo. He has participated in residencies at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany; KHIO, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway; the Joan Mitchell Foundation in New Orleans; the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston; and USF Verftet in Bergen. He has exhibited his work at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway; Mass Gallery, Austin, Texas; and Oslo Prosjektrom, Norway.

Jared and Kristina explore mythological and grotesque forms from different artistic perspectives, with Jared working with sculptural elements and Kristina using textiles. Through their collaboration, they introduce AI as a tool to create new visual interpretations based on their previous works, leading to a rich exchange of ideas and further artistic exploration. Their distinct yet complementary approaches, along with the use of AI, inform their creative process, but the final works evolve independently, driven by their tactile and intuitive working methods. Their installation consists of unsettling forms that both revive ancient narratives and remain relevant in our time.

Webiste to Jared Theis.
Website to Galleri N. Bergslien.