28/04/2026
Siste uke med Olga Garro og utstillingen MIRROR
Garro (b. 1984, Belarus) lives in Asker and works in Oslo. She studied design and porcelain at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague and later received her Master’s degree from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.Garro has presented solo exhibitions at institutions at Kunsthall Grenland in, Oslo Prosjektrom, Galleri NOK in Bodø, and Galleri Seilduken in Oslo. Her works are included in the collection of the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Trondheim.
Olga Garro works across ceramics and installation to investigate the psychological and social structures that shape individual identity. Her practice explores the fragile intersection between personal experience and collective frameworks, examining how internal conflict, vulnerability, and social expectations influence the formation of the self.
Central to Garro’s work is an exploration of material and formal tension. Organic forms encounter strict geometries, while figurative traces emerge within abstract structures. Through these contrasts, she creates visual environments in which order and disruption coexist, reflecting the ways individuals navigate systems of belonging, adaptation, and uncertainty.
In recent projects, Garro draws on autobiographical experience as a conceptual framework, reflecting on migration, cultural integration, and the shifting sense of belonging within Norwegian society. Memory becomes a central theme—not as a fixed archive, but as a selective and mutable process that continually reshapes personal and cultural narratives.
Her installations invite viewers to enter spaces where materiality, form, and narrative intersect, revealing the subtle tensions between stability and fragmentation that shape contemporary experiences of identity.
In MIRROR Olga Garro draws inspiration from a visit to the village where her ancestors lived for generations, a place deeply rooted in her family history, yet one she no longer feels she belongs to. At its center stood her grandparents’ house, abandoned for over fifteen years and slowly surrendering to time and decay.
Inside, she encountered the fading traces of everyday life where broken windows and scattered belongings lay with objects that were once essential. Among them were handmade textiles, small drinking glasses, and rusted farm tools. These remnants, though worn and forgotten, carried a strong emotional presence. Compelled to preserve and transform them, she brought selected items with her to Norway.
These objects now form part of her Mirror installation. Through this work, Garro explores fragmented memories of her childhood home, some vivid and others fading into obscurity. By assembling these elements, she reconstructs a personal narrative shaped by displacement and time. The installation becomes a reflection on memory, identity, and the complex sense of belonging across places and histories.
