Galleri Blunk

Nicholas Westgård (b. 2000, he/him) is a Bergen-based painter and illustrator, currently working towards his MFA at Bergen Academy of Art.

Working primarily in oils, he has of recent committed to the proliferation of small-scale works on paper. Often mediating moments culled from his own life; he works meticulously to render scenes of q***r intimacy and tenderness, depicted in a nostalgic, green-tinged light.

The artist’s work captures its subjects with an objectifying gaze: fixating on the particularities of a gesture, the folds of an ear, or the way another hand has transcribed a Billet-doux. It catches its subjects in moments of vulnerability; in the brief glimpse between the exchange of glances, as they turn away, or instances unaware they are being perceived at all.  It’s an analytical, sometimes cold gaze – but a deeply loving one. One that seeks connection, intimacy and understanding.

Informed by a self-described compulsion to immortalize that which feels transient, fleeting.  His practice can be understood as the er****on of monuments to feelings, experiences, and moments. A testament to a life lived – grievable when lost.

Maja Ja Jansen (b. 2001, she/her) is a visual artist from Jessheim, based in Oslo. Her
practice is interdisciplinary and unfolds through media including painting, textiles,
sculpture, video, and printmaking. Her work revolves around themes such as home,
play, spirituality, and care, with an interest in how memories and experiences are
stored in the body and in the materials that surround us.

Through a sensorial and intuitive approach, she explores how objects and materials
can carry affect and give form to personal and recognizable narratives. Several works
investigate the subconscious and what remains in the body over time, often through
the use of repetition and symmetry. Through childlike figures, charged materials,
and symbolic forms, the works address experiences of vulnerability, defense, and
belonging, opening up for individual and intuitive readings in relation to questions
of safety, identity, and carrying the past within us

In the solo exhibition What Stays, What Leaves, Maja Ja Jansen presents works that
move between staying and leaving. The exhibition brings together both new and
earlier works, and revolves around questions of presence, absence, and how
memories are shaped through what we choose to remember and what gradually
slips out of consciousness.

The exhibition explores the tension between a longing for change and the pull of
the familiar; between the desire to escape to another place and the need to remain
where one already is. Leaving something behind does not necessarily mean it
disappears—something remains in the body, in memory, or in the materials that
surround us.
What Stays, What Leaves is Jansen’s first solo exhibition in Trondheim.

Opening hours:
Vernissage Friday March 20th 19.00 - 21.00
Open Saturday and Sunday 12.00 - 15.00

GALLERI BLUNK SPRING PROGRAMME 2026!