Green cap

I painted this large oil painting as a moment of staged intimacy. The girl in the foreground meets you directly, almost confrontationally, but the hand in front of her mouth creates a distance. She is hiding something. Or perhaps protecting herself.

This work grows out of my reflections on Generation Z — a generation raised with the camera always present. Identity is no longer only something you are, but something you continually shape, edit and present. The strong colours, the red in particular, stand for the intensity of that visibility: the need to be seen, but also the fear of being seen through.

The figures behind seem both complicit and detached, as though caught in the same game. They are smiling, but there is something uneasy in their expressions. As an artist I wanted to capture this tension between the authentic and the constructed.

This is not a criticism, but an observation. Generation Z carries a unique ability to express itself visually, but also a vulnerability tied to constant exposure. The picture lives in that space — between what we show and what we hold back.

Artist

Trond Berg-Nilssen

Technique

Oil on canvas

Size

100 × 80 cm

Price (excl. art royalty)

NOK 17,500

Edition

Original work — 1 of 1

Signature

Trond Berg-Nilssen

Represented by

Trond Berg-Nilssen gallery

Shipping

Personal delivery in Southern Norway, guaranteed shipping via Posten elsewhere

Framing / other

Without frame