The exhibition’s title plays on the digital act of refreshing a social media feed to see new content, mirroring the artist’s social media-centric practice as well as the exhibition’s changing nature. Having the works situated in public spaces echoes the artist’s principle of making his work free and accessible to all, a hallmark of his online presence.

A band of red colour is dispersed along walls at Kunstnernes Hus: in the restaurant and across hallways and interstitial spaces. The red band demarcates the spaces across which Refresh will unfold. Over two months, new works will appear in the restaurant and gradually be moved onto other surfaces. As such, visitors will experience a growing body of work that expands and evolves with each visit, challenging the static nature of traditional exhibitions and reflecting the unpredictability and immediacy of social media feeds. With this approach to exhibition making, visitors are encouraged to repeat visits and deeper engagement.

In a moment where political and artistic freedoms are increasingly at risk, Albaih's artistic practice is rooted in the belief in the power of art to foster dialogue, inspire change, and connect communities across geographies. Refresh is intended as an experiment in making the institution a platform for critical discourse and cultural exchange, inviting audiences to see the world through fresh perspectives.

In conjunction with Refresh, there will be clothing items designed by the artist available in the shop.

The exhibition is curated by Sarah Lookofsky. It is generously sponsored by Fritt Ord, and part of a broader collaboration with the foundation. Thanks to Alcro for sponsoring the wall paint.

On Wednesday, April 2, 2025 we host an evening of Sudanese film screening Heroic Bodies by Sara Suliman and Bahar by Albaih. The program is a collaboration between Khalid Albaih, Kunstnernes Hus Cinema and the Arab Film Days.

Khalid Albaih (b. 1980, Bucharest) is a Sudanese political cartoonist and artist based in Oslo. Albaih is known for his advocacy of human rights and freedom of expression. His cartoons rose to prominence in 2011 during the Arab Spring and in 2023. In 2018, he published Khartoon!, a collection of his works, and during the 2018 Sudanese revolution, he published Sudan Retold (2019) featuring 31 Sudanese artists. Albaih was a Human Rights Fellow at Colby College in Maine in 2016, a resident artist of the International Cities of Refuge Network in Copenhagen in 2017 and again in 2019. He has won multiple awards such as the Moleskine Foundation Creativity Pioneers Award (2023) and the Kindle Project: Makers Muse Award (2020). Albaih is the founder/co-founder of multiple institutions including the Sudan Artist Fund, the Sudan Art and Design Library, and the Khartoum Art and Design Center. He has established several online initiatives including Khartoon!, Doha Fashion Fridays, Fadaa and more recently KhartoonMag.com.

Solo exhibitions include Shahid, Mathaf (Doha, Qatar, 2024), Stumbling is not Falling, Edge of Arabia (New York, 2019), Following Handala: Khalid Albaih in Tokyo, Asakusa Art Space (Tokyo, 2017), #Khartoon! - @khalidalbaih at Harvard, Harvard Center of Middle Eastern Studies (Boston, 2016), @tlas, Virginia Commonwealth University (Doha, 2016), and It's Not Funny, Political Cartoons by Khalid Albaih, the Arab American National Museum (Michigan, 2015). Albaih has taken part in group exhibitions, such as The Khartoum School, Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah, 2016) and, in 2022, Documenta 15  in Kassel with the project The Walls Have Ears.

Main image: Tor S. Ulstein/Kunstdok