Roar Kjærnstad

Roar Kjernstad (born 1975, Espa, Norway) is a painter who specialises in traditional figurative work.

Education and career Kjernstad trained at the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, focusing at the latter on study of the Old Masters.

In his view, painters and artists in general should be craftsmen. But unlike Nerdrum and according to the retrogardists, Kjernstad still believes that traditional and figurative artists should claim the term "art" rather than use the name "kitsch" for their work. The use of the term "kitsch" shows no respect to the skills traditional and figurative artist need to have and to the eternal values of beauty they believe in.

Selected exhibitions

2023: Galleri Hervold Hamar 2023: Ørland Sparebanks kunstnerstipend 2022: Hamsungalleriet Tranøy 2021: Galleri Vanntårnet with Olav Starheim 2020: Galleri Briskeby 2019: Nils Aas senteret 2018: Vertical Gallery, Chicago 2017: Museum Nord 2014: Sutton Gallery, Scotland 2012: Galleri A, Oslo