Siegfried Contemporary is delighted to present Carmine Ashes, a solo exhibition and UK debut by Norwegian artist Ann Iren Buan.
Ann Iren Buan’s practice is grounded in an expanded understanding of drawing, where surface is continually pushed towards volume and material presence. In the works presented, densely layered dry pastel accumulates into thick, tactile formations that rupture the picture plane, shifting drawing into the realm of relief and sculpture. Pigment is not applied but built, compressed and worked, producing surfaces that appear both fragile and excessive, at once eroded and generative.
Across the exhibition, Buan presents a body of work spanning both wall-based and freestanding forms, where the distinction between drawing, painting and sculpture becomes increasingly unstable. Works oscillate between image and object, with surfaces that press outward into space and structures that retain the sensibility of the drawn mark.
At the centre of Carmine Ashes is a monumental triptych of the same title, rendered in carmine, a pigment the artist has long been interested in for both its material and historical weight. Derived from crushed cochineal insects, carmine carries a layered cultural history, associated across time with value, secrecy and bodily reference. As Buan notes, the colour is “often connected to blood, overwhelming emotions and desire,” yet here it is approached as a muted, sensuous red, both restrained and saturated.
It is made out of dried and crushed bodies of the female cochineal insect, and was used as early as 700 BC by indigenous tribes. It is still today mostly made the same way. To touch into its history shortly (there is a lot more to be said), it was for example in Europe in the 17th century more valuable than sugar and gold, as the recipe for making the color was held a secret by the Spanish crown. Today it is used a lot in cosmetics, natural food coloring and in the textile industry.
In literature the use of the word carmine is often in connection with blood, overwhelming emotions and desire.
The triptych asserts a strong physical presence within the gallery’s intimate architecture. Rather than conforming to the scale of the room, it presses against it, creating a condition in which the viewer becomes acutely aware of their own body in relation to the work. Buan describes the intention to create “a bold and sensual work, and at the same time fragile and tactile,” a form that both dominates and envelops. The surface oscillates between soft atmospheric passages and dense, almost fleshy protrusions, as if the image were emerging from within the material itself.
In contrast, Golden Ochre Whispering, a small work in a luminous yellow introduces a different register of encounter. While the carmine triptych overwhelms, this work draws the viewer inward. Its scale demands proximity, offering a more intimate and concentrated experience of colour and surface. As with all of Buan’s works, colour operates as a material in its own right, carrying both emotional and bodily resonance.
This relationship between drawing and object extends into the suspended sculptural works. Rendered in deep teal, the forms of Phantom I and II are reworked from earlier pieces, their surfaces bearing traces of previous iterations. Layers of colour remain visible, suggesting a process of continual transformation. Buan describes them as “ruins of earlier constructions,” remnants that retain the memory of their own making. Hanging and partially collapsed, they introduce vertical lines into the space, directing the viewer’s gaze upward and downward while reinforcing a sense of instability and duration.
Across Carmine Ashes, drawing is treated as a material process rather than a representational one. The works exist in a state of tension between surface and structure, containment and release. Relief-like drawings pull the viewer inward, while the sculptures assert themselves as bodies in space. Together, they articulate a practice in which gesture accumulates into form, and in which destruction and renewal remain inextricably linked.
Ann Iren Buan (b. 1984) lives and works in Oslo. She holds an MFA in Visual Art from The Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo (2011).
Previous solo exhibitions include The Vigeland Museum (2018) and OSL contemporary, Oslo (2024, 2021, 2018); Museum for papirkunst, Blokus (2024); Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo (2024); Kristiansand Kunsthall, Kristiansand (2021); Apalazzo gallery, Brescia (2019 and upcoming in 2026). Buan has participated in a number of group shows including the Drawing Triennial hosted by The Norwegian Drawing Association at Kunstnernes Hus (2019); Trondheim Kunsthall, Trondheim (2019); Palazzo Mazzarino, Palermo (2018); Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger (2015); and The Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo (2015). Her works are part of several public and private collections, including the National Museum (Oslo), Oslo Kommune Kunstsamling, The Versace collection, Storebrand Art Collection, Equinor and the Norwegian Parliament Art Collection.