BFA in Medium- and Material Based Art

Ceramic art encompasses a broad array of artistic approaches to the use of clay and ceramics. Ceramic art is closely connected to the field of contemporary craft as well as to fine art and design, and it has played an influential role throughout art history. In this specialisation you will work on your own individual projects under the supervision of professional, practising artists. The wide range of skill sets to be found among the section’s staff within ceramics allows our students to approach the field in a variety of ways. We actively draw upon our contacts in the international ceramics art community in lectures and seminars, as well as in the guise form of invited guest artists.

By working hands-on in the workshops, you will explore materials, techniques and conceptual strategies and methods with an eye towards becoming more aware of your own artistic idiom and style. The overall goal of the teaching is to provide broad insight into the field of ceramic art, in addition to providing you with the knowledge and skills that are needed to work as a professional ceramic artist.

The focus in this specialisation is on graphic techniques such as intaglio, lithography, screen printing and relief printing as well as photo-based processes in these media. The specialisation also includes drawing and book art.

The radical transformations in the field of printmaking in recent years have changed modern approaches to the medium. Printmaking is a democratic form of expression that may include everything from posters and inscribed buttons to clothes, cakes and graffiti. Prints may also include printed medium-density fibreboards (MDFs) and digitally manipulated silk screens, tapestries incorporated in installations, or woodcuts where the matrix itself takes centre stage in the work. Printmaking thus turns up in a variety of forms within the wider field of graphic art.

Drawing is closely related to graphic forms of expression and covers everything from sketches and drawing as developmental and conceptual tools to drawing as a unique form of art, and to drawing combined with other materials and techniques. Drawing has gradually become an important idiom in contemporary art, whether expressed on paper, walls or tablets, showcased in artist’s books, or conveyed through other techniques of mass production.

Discover more about our Print & Drawing students: grafikk.khio.no

Textile art represents a way of thinking, creating, writing and expressing ourselves. In this specialisation, you will learn to dye fibres using chemical recipes and plants, spin yarn and read philosophy, art history and political theory. Weaving, prints and embroidery all serve to express our ideas in multi-layered ways.

At the Academy, textile art is taught through practical instruction in workshops and through seminars where students learn about textile practices, dying, analogue and digital weaving, silk screens, digital/analogue textile prints and digital/analogue embroidery. We are regularly visited by national and international guest artists, curators and theorists. As a student you will be supervised both individually and in groups. We also have auditorium-based teaching in theory and art history.

We offer Norway’s only higher education art programme that specialises in jewellery art and object design. Jewellery creates identity and is personal, but it is worn and communicated in a social setting. Objects, corpora and sculptures are also conveyors of meaning, with tradition serving as the basis for innovation and artistic processes. This specialisation also explores site-specific art and public art.

The teaching is based on artistic praxis with a focus on craft and materials, in parallel with art theory and methodology. Experimentation and exploration, both practical and conceptual, are strongly emphasised. The Academy’s workshops are unique, and as a student you will have the opportunity to learn more about techniques such as soldering, founding, forging, welding and patinating. You will primarily work on individual projects under the supervision of professional practitioners. We organise seminars, lectures and discussions. As a student you will benefit from a large professional network and a wealth of international guest teachers.