May 2 – November 1, 2026

At the Bornholm Art Museum, Kirsten Ortwed has transformed the museum’s five largest galleries—spanning more than 500 m²—into landscapes of sculpture, where every movement and every glance holds the potential to alter your perception of a space, a form, or a sculpture itself. You might leave with the feeling that the world can be shaped in ways you had never before imagined.

The exhibition showcases Ortwed’s sculptural language and thought process spanning five decades. This marks the first time since 2008 that such a large number of Ortwed’s works have been brought together.

In her early works from the 1970s and 1980s, she rigorously interrogates the historical norms of sculpture, subsequently creating "anti-sculptures": sculptures mounted on walls rather than pedestals, and works crafted from canvas and rubber instead of bronze.

In 1997, she was selected to represent Denmark at the world’s most prestigious exhibition, the Venice Biennale. There, she exhibited the work Tons of Circumstances, which is being shown again in this exhibition.

While the vast majority of Kirsten Ortwed’s sculptures are abstract, figurative elements have emerged in her work in recent years—ranging from human figures to fragments of nature. The exhibition presents a wide array of recent works, including Ortwed’s latest piece, OFF-SHORE, a large-scale nature fragment. It is about looking beyond the landscape and the horizon, being drawn to the sea and vast expanses, and gazing toward the future. Kirsten Ortwed trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen between 1972 and 1975. She has lived and worked for most of her life in Cologne, Germany, and Pietrasanta, Italy. She has now returned to Denmark, where she lives and works in Copenhagen and on the island of Bornholm.

Ortwed has exhibited across most of Europe, as well as in the USA and Mexico, and is represented in museum collections such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, and the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) in Copenhagen. Her accolades include the Eckersberg Medal, the Thorvaldsen Medal, the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant, and the Danish Arts Foundation’s lifetime honorary grant; most recently, she received the New Carlsberg Foundation’s Artist Grant.

Sculpture Activities

Open sculpture workshops—located both indoors and out in the park—are available for children and adults alike. These spaces invite contemplation, conversation, and a sense of wonder. The aim is not to understand everything, but to feel, learn, and rediscover the ability to see and perceive in a fast-paced world. It is about conversing with a sculpture just as one might speak to an animal or the sea—and discovering the language that art speaks.

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