Karen Helga Maurstig

Karen Helga Maurstig is a Norwegian artist based in Jølster in Sunnfjord, Norway, whose practice centers on paper and graphic techniques -- mokuhanga, cold needle, and letterpress printing -- applied across prints, books, objects, and installations. Her work is deeply connected to the Norwegian coastal landscape and the traditions of craft and community that define life in western Norway.

Maurstig studied graphics at the Willem De Kooning Hogeschool in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where she developed her foundation in printmaking. In 2006, she traveled to Japan to participate in NAPP, the Nagasawa Art Park Project -- an artist-in-residence program that served as the forerunner to today's Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory. This early encounter with Japanese woodblock printing proved formative, and mokuhanga has since become central to her artistic practice alongside her other graphic techniques.

'20 Coastal Stations,' a travelling artist residency that Maurstig co-initiated and curated with fellow Norwegian artist Elisabet Alsos Strand, was dedicated to mokuhanga and craftsmanship. In August 2015, six artists from Japan, Sweden, Finland, and Norway set out along the coast of Norway, creating work in response to the landscape, communities, and maritime traditions they encountered. The project exemplified Maurstig's belief in art as a practice rooted in place and shared experience, connecting the meditative process of mokuhanga with the contemplative rhythms of coastal life.

More recently, her 2025 Solund project continued this place-based approach through a series of site-specific installations in the island municipality of Solund, including works installed in traditional boathouses, at landing places, and in village buildings. The installations incorporated mokuhanga prints, cyanotypes, Japanese paper folding techniques, and found objects, creating an immersive dialogue between Japanese craft traditions and Norwegian coastal culture.

Maurstig's work is held in public collections including the Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum, the Tama Art University Museum in Tokyo, and the Museum of Texas Tech University. She has taken part in successive International Mokuhanga Conferences -- presenting her '20 Coastal Stations' project at the 2017 conference in Hawaii and joining the fourth conference, held online in 2021 -- and she is listed on Mokuhanga Magic's Mokumap directory of mokuhanga artists.