Mario de la Ossa (1994)
mario.dlo@outlook.com
+1 929 724-8238
@de.la.ossa
Contact for print size and priceing
Mario de la Ossa (b.1994) is a Norwegian/Costa Rican photographer and artist currently pursuing a MFA at Pratt Institute in New York, US.
My work explores photography’s unstable position in today’s culture, caught between trust and suspicion, seduction and critique. We live in an image-saturated world where photographs shape collective memory and political narratives, yet their authority is constantly undermined by manipulation, staging, and endless digital circulation.
I create singular images that stage moments of encounter, drawing on cultural tropes and visual codes that feel familiar yet uneasy. These photographs resist straightforward interpretation, balancing between post-photographic strategies and poetic ambiguity. Rather than pursuing documentary truth, I am interested in how images perform: how they expose the act of looking, and how viewers negotiate their own uncertainty and recognition.
Presentation is central to my practice. Large-scale prints reclaim photography as object and craft, emphasizing surface and materiality, while publications offer a slower mode of engagement where sequencing and text open different entry points. Both formats carve out a space of reflection within the continuous flow of images.
Informed by my background in Costa Rica and Norway, and shaped by my studies in the U.S., my work probes how images circulate across borders and cultural imaginaries, testing photography’s capacity to mediate power, intimacy, and belonging.
Education
2024 - 2026 MFA Photography, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
2021 - 2024 BFA, Academy of Fine Arts, Bergen
2019 - 2021 Photography, Bilder Nordic, Oslo
2019 - 2020 Photo Assistent, Ole Martin Halvorsen, Oslo
2012 Certificate of apprenticeship, Electrician, Kvadraturen skolesenter, Kristiansand
Grants and awards
2025 NORAM utdannings stipend, Norge-Amerika Foreningen
2025 Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency
2024 Fulbright Scholarship, William Fulbright Foundation, United States
2021 Langt fra - Hjemme, 1st place newcomer, Norwegian photo of the year
Solo Exhibitions
2024 “Sense of Place” – Kulturhuset Østre, Bergen, NO
Group Exhibitions
2025 Mario de la Ossa og Tor Simen Ulstein, Kunstpunkt Lista, Agder Kunstforening, NO
2024 Oslo Negativ, Magasinet Fotografi (Preus Museum), Oslo, NO
2024 Galleri Taxi, Bergen, NO
2023 More Than Meets AI, University of California Berkeley, US
2023 Oslo Negativ, Preus Museum, Oslo, NO
2023 Tighten Up For Me, Michael Laundrey Art Garden, Oslo, NO
2023 The 136th Autumn Exhibition, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO
2023 Sørlandsutstillingen, Arendal, NO
2023 BACC, Experimental Video Art Exhibition, Bangkok, TH
2023 Nobody Knows The Ocean Like The Moon, Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, NO
2022 Nordic Light Festival of Photography, Kristiansund, NO
2022 Forrom Festival, Bergen, NO
2022 Vårutstillingen, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, No
2021 Nordic Light Festival of Photography, Kristiansund, NO
2021 On Hope, Fotografiens hus, Oslo, NO
2021 Norwegian photo of the year, Galleri Oslo, Oslo, NO
2019-2020 I samme båt, Bruket, Oslo, NO
Positions
2025 Jurymedlem Portfolio Pris 2025, Magasinet Fotografi
2023 University Board, University of Bergen
2022 - 2023 Leader of The Faculty Student Council, KMD, University of Bergen
2022 Faculty Board, University of Bergen
2021 - 2022 Institute Council, The Art Academy, KMD, University of Bergen
2021 - 2022 Leader of The Institute Student Council, KMD, University of Bergen
Books and publications
2022 Collaborative Publication HKS
2021 The Royal Photographic Society
2021 Bergtagen, selfpublished
2021 Norwegian photo of the year 2020
Presentations
2023 Artist talk, Oslo Negativ
2022 Artist talk, Nordic Light Festival of Photography
2021 Artist talk, Oslo Kamera Klubb
2021 Artist talk, Open day, Bilder Nordic