Pushwagner continously reused and redeveloped his own motives in various media, as if a democratic principle for spreading his ideas, and his idiosyncratic visual language has been subject to vast attention.

The exhibition aims at returning to the origins of Pushwagner’s work, based on key series from his early phases from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. It goes back to where the artist’s hand meets the paper or canvas, and to where the artist reuses his own material. With a unique sensibility to popular culture, Pushwagner captured the spirit of the times in a science fiction-like language of comics. His artistic project actively and critically pointed to the homogeneity created in modern capitalist society—from cities in which people are crammed into crowded high-rise buildings, to authoritarian leaders waging remote technological warfare. He also revealed how language can be distorted to the point of absurdity and unrecognizability. The exhibition explores these issues, which were at the core of Pushwagner’s practice and whose repercussions are becoming increasingly apparent today.

The exhibition seeks to highlight a historical practice that continues to inform contemporary artists and remains highly relevant today. The exhibition is the first major presentation of Pushwagner’s work in a museum in Norway since his passing.

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