Maria Kjær Themsen

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  picks September 09, 2015

  Rose Eken

  A fictive artist’s studio based on photos of actual artists’ work spaces—from Jonathan Meese and Richard Colman to local artists such as Maiken Bent and Alexander Tovborg—is the frame for this new exhibition by Danish artist Rose Eken. All the objects presented are handmade ceramic, together visually overwhelming due to their number. They range from traditional artists’ equipment, such as brushes, cans, a ladder, a sink, and clothes spattered with paint strokes, to a stack of Playboy magazines.

  All pieces are, impressively, made at a one-to-one scale. Everything seems familiar at first glance,

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  picks April 15, 2015

  FOS

  “Your Success Is Your Amnesia” beams from an illuminated neon sign titled Tzatziki, 2013, outside the entrance of the venue for this exhibition, the largest ever of Danish artist FOS’s work. Memory and collective amnesia both play an important role in this show, which examines several dimensions of the artist’s repertoire, including social activities, poetry, and sculpture, accompanied by new site-specific works. FOS uses language as a philosophical, but also deeply political, element in his work, like with the large neon sign outside or in little poems and a mini light broadcasting the message

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  picks September 18, 2014

  Tove Storch

  On first look, Tove Storch’s three new sculptural works—some standing, others lying directly on the floor—look like pieces of one big, rusty radiator. Upon closer inspection, though, one discovers they’re unexpectedly fragile and made of rusted metal and transparent silk with thin spaces between the layers of fabric. Creating works that look monumental but are actually light and in some ways delicate signifies a dissonance between appearance and the reality essential to her work.

  Extending a Minimalist tradition wherein the inherent properties of the materials used decide the aesthetic and limits

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  picks May 09, 2014

  Jacob Jessen

  In the work of the Danish artist Jacob Jessen, one often finds profound philosophical issues—such as a longing to encounter the limit of human awareness—condensed into elegant and well-designed objects. This is also the case in his latest solo exhibition, “Things that reside.” Upon entering the gallery, visitors are met by Weight of the World, 2014—three rusty iron rods on the floor. Jessen has stored these corroded objects, some of which he found, for over a decade, and they are here presented with tiny meteorites—which are 4.56 billion years old—thus bringing together two elements that have