AWARDS 

Lea Porsager wins The New Carlsberg Foundation's Artist Grant

We would like to congratulate Lea Porsager on The New Carlsberg Foundation's Artist Grant!

The grant is awarded to one or several artists who, through courage, originality and impact have made themselves known, both in Denmark and internationally. ⁠

The Artist Grant in 2022 is awarded to two artists: Lea Porsager and Tue Greenfort⁠⁠. NILS STÆRK would also like to congratulate the other winners: Elmgreen & Dragset, Tue Greenfort, Astrid la Cour and Pia Wirnfeldt. ⁠

For more information, please click here.

News 

Nils Stærk søger Sales Director

Sales Director for ambitious gallery with an international profile

NILS STÆRK is a gallery with an international artistic profile located in Copenhagen's northwestern district. The gallery was founded in 1997 by Nils Stærk and is dedicated to creating a strong contemporary art scene. Today, the gallery represents a number of national and international artists working in diverse artistic expressions and sharing an interest in exploring current social themes. The gallery participates in Danish and international art fairs such as Art Basel and Zona Maco on an annual basis.

We place great emphasis on good work culture, and we are looking for a Sales Director who will be part of our professional team of skilled employees, all of whom contribute and collaborate to create the best results. As Sales Director, your central task will be to strengthen the gallery’s commercial activities and revenue. You will also be involved in a number of artist liaison assignments concerning some of the artists represented. Your primary work tasks will include:

  • sales work
  • building and maintaining customer networks
  • liaising with public and private institutions       
  • developing new sales ideas

In addition, you will be involved in other tasks, such as:

  • professional planning and development of exhibitions and art fairs
  • ensuring professional and confidential contact between gallery and artists
  • collaborating with artists on e.g. the production of new works, exhibitions, commissions, etc.
  • internal knowledge-sharing about collaborative ventures with individual artists
  • professional communication in connection with exhibitions, sales presentations, etc. 

We expect you to have a relevant background, be interested in contemporary art, and to have a knack for and enjoy sales work. Sales experience from the art industry or similar would be an advantage. You must be a welcoming and skilled communicator, both orally and in writing, and be able to develop positive collaborations in relation to both artists and customers as well as business partners and colleagues in the gallery. You must be able to take responsibility and show flexibility and commitment in relation to the gallery's overall tasks. Some of your tasks will involve travelling in both Denmark and abroad, and it is therefore important that you have the opportunity and desire to prioritize travelling activities.

This is a full-time position. A personality test will form part of the recruitment process. The salary is negotiable. 

Any questions about the position should be directed to Nils Stærk on +45 40887766 or nils@nilsstaerk.dk 

Please send your application and CV to gallery@nilsstaerk.dk.

 


 

Sales Director til ambitiøst galleri med international profil

NILS STÆRK er et galleri med en international kunstnerisk profil beliggende i Københavns Nordvest kvarter. Galleriet blev etableret i 1997 af Nils Stærk med et mål om at skabe en kraftfuld scene for samtidskunst. Galleriet repræsenterer i dag en række nationale og internationale kunstnere, der arbejder i et bredt kunstnerisk felt og deler en interesse for at udforske aktuelle samfundstemaer. Galleriet deltager årligt på danske og internationale kunstmesser som fx Art Basel samt Zona Maco.

Vi vægter højt at have en god kollegial arbejdskultur, og vi leder efter en Sales Director, der vil indgå i vores professionelle team af dygtige medarbejdere, hvor alle bidrager til og samarbejder om at skabe de bedste resultater.

Som Sales Director vil din centrale opgave være at styrke den kommercielle aktivitet og omsætning for galleriet. Du vil også blive inddraget i en række artist liaison-opgaver for en del af de kunstnere, som galleriet repræsenterer. Dine primære arbejdsopgaver vil bl.a. bestå af:

  • opsøgende salgsarbejde
  • opbygge og vedligeholde kundenetværk
  • kontakt til offentlige og private institutioner
  • udvikling af nye salgsideer

Derudover vil du blive inddraget i andre opgaver fx:

  • faglig planlægning og udvikling af udstillinger og kunstmesser
  • sørge for en god og fortrolig kontakt mellem galleri og kunstner med god forventningsafstemning
  • løbende kontakt til kunstnerne om bl.a. produktion af nye værker, udstillinger, udsmykningsopgaver m.v.
  • videndeling internt om samarbejdet med den enkelte kunstner
  • faglig kommunikation i forbindelse med udstillinger, salgspræsentationer m.v.

Vi forventer, at du har en relevant baggrund, interesse for samtidskunst og lyst til og evner for salgsarbejde. Det er en fordel, hvis du har erfaring med salgsarbejde fra kunstbranchen eller en lignende branche. Du skal være en imødekommende og dygtig kommunikator både mundtligt og skriftligt og være i stand til at udvikle positive samarbejder både i forhold til kunstnere, kunder og samarbejdspartnere og i forhold til kolleger i galleriet. Du skal kunne tage ansvar og udvise fleksibilitet og engagement i forhold til galleriets samlede opgaver. En del af dine opgaver vil skulle udføres på rejser i ind- og udland, og det er derfor vigtigt, at du har mulighed for og lyst til at prioritere rejseaktivitet.

Stillingen er en fuldtidsstilling og ønskes besat snarest muligt. Der vil indgå en personlighedstest i ansættelsesforløbet. Lønnen vil blive fastsat efter konkret forhandling.

Hvis du har spørgsmål til stillingen, er du velkommen til at kontakte Nils Stærk på telefon 40887766 eller nils@nilsstaerk.dk

Send din ansøgning samt CV til gallery@nilsstaerk.dk.

SOLO SHOWS 

Runo Lagomarsino 'A Cloud of Smoke' at Galleri Format

Runo Lagomarsino's solo exhibition A Cloud of Smoke, is now open at Galleri Format, Malmø

The show runs until 27.02.2022⁠

To read the full exhibition text, written by Avram Alpert, please click here. Text courtesy of Galleri Format, Malmø.



 

COMMISSIONS 

SUPERFLEX’s Play Contract in Billund, Denmark⁠

Play Contract is SUPERFLEX's most recent permanent project, made to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the Capital of Children in Billund

Most public art is made by adults, without taking children’s perspectives into account. With Play Contract, the balance of power is tipped, and children have helped design a playful space featuring five sculptures surrounded by adapted landscape. The visitors’ behavior in this space is governed by a contract that asks grown-ups to submit to the conditions of children’s play.⁠

A group of 121 children in Billund, Denmark was given the task to investigate and design models which could promote play across generations. In close collaboration with KWY.studio, SUPERFLEX gathered these models and synthesized them into a final design, which was then constructed in pink marble. The sculptures are made of approximately 300 stones, each with a unique shape. These stones were left raw and unpolished, displaying all the marks left by the various tools that were used to cut them. Each stone tells its own story; they look like they come from a deep past or a deep future. ⁠

Informed by the children’s thoughts about play, a contract was prepared and carved into the sculptures. Within the area of the sculptures, the grown-ups must agree to embrace their sense of the absurd and to abide by children’s sense of time. There, clocks have no power and deadlines are meaningless. Adults strive to control the world around them, but play involves allowing for surprises and giving up control. Play Contract is an invention for children and grown-ups to meet and re-think the idea of play. 

Play Contract, by SUPERFLEX with KWY.studio and 121 children from Billund. Commissioned by CoC Playful Minds. ⁠The sculptures are a gift from KIRKBI to all citizens of Billund and visitors to commemorate the Capital of Children’s 10th anniversary in 2021. ⁠

Address: Billund Sculpture Park, Jensens Vej and Skolevej.


Play Contract, 2021. Photo: Torben Eskerod


 

SOLO SHOWS 

SUPERFLEX 'Sometimes As A Fog, Sometimes As A Tsunami' at Kunsthaus Graz

Sometimes As A Fog, Sometimes As A Tsunami is now open to the public at Kunsthaus Graz

The exhibition will run until 13.03.2022.

_

In 2017, SUPERFLEX began a five-year project at Kunsthaus Graz. During this period, one work has been installed in the space each year, all addressing the fetishization of money, the collapse of value, and the economic conditions that constrain cultural institutions.
The cycle concludes with a substantial solo exhibition entitled Sometimes As A Fog, Sometimes As A Tsunami, focusing on the power of economy to dissolve social relations. In this context, capitalism appears as a fluid force that seeps into every crack and corner of the world. The exhibition includes works engaging with the dizzying nature of the economy, works that expand notions of community and aim to open new forms of coexistence between species, and a new film that imagines a post-human future.
Sometimes As A Fog, Sometimes As A Tsunami will be accompanied by a publication that reflects SUPERFLEX's interest in value systems. Buyers of the book will be involved in the process of value generation: the exact same book will be sold at three different prices, so it’s up the buyer to decide how it’s valued. The content of the book provides insight into the exhibition and places the works on display in a larger discursive context. Designed by Rasmus Koch Studio.

SUPERFLEX
Sometimes As A Fog, Sometimes As A Tsunami
26.11.2021-13.03.2022
Curated by: Barbara Steiner


 

Photo by Jakob Fenger. Courtesy of SUPERFLEX.


 

 

 

 

News 

Ed Templeton is now a part of the permanent collection at MoMa The Museum of Modern Art.

NILS STÆRK is very pleased to announce that Ed and Deanna Templeton's body of work 'Contemporary Surburbium' has been accepted into the permanent collection at MoMa The Museum of Modern Art.

Photographers Deanna and Ed Templeton’s Contemporary Suburbium examines life in the Southern California suburb of Huntington Beach. Their work offers an insider’s view of living in a place that has long held traditional conservative values, capturing moments in those tract house neighborhoods that fluctuate between innocence and rebellion.

Templeton's point of departure is his own life, both his everyday life and his experiences: Skateboarding, friends, traveling and his relationship with his muse and wife of many years, Deanna. Life as a professional skateboarder affects Templeton's works, and with an outspoken approach to the skater environment that he is himself a part of and an icon of, Templeton presents and comments on his life, the people he meets, and the places he visits on his many travels around the world. The photographs document, often in a very personal manner, a life which is both normal and extreme, ordinary and unusual, raw and intimate. 


           'Contemporary Surburbium' at UTAH MOCA 

News 

SUPERFLEX · Interspecies Assembly in Copenhagen

Following its debut in New York's United Nations Headquarters and Central Park during the 76th UN General Assembly, Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030 will travel to Copenhagen for a month-long exhibition at BLOX and the Danish Architecture Center (DAC). 
 
Every night for a month, audiences are invited to meet a sea creature in the interactive filmwork Vertical Migration. It will be screened in DAC Passage, on a wall that serves as a barrier, holding back the water of the canal. At the same time, the Interspecies Assembly sculptural installation, on Bryghuspladsen, invites humans and non-humans alike to gather in a space for listening and interspecies dialogue. 
After encountering siphonophores—relatives of jellyfish—while blackwater diving in the Coral Sea, SUPERFLEX designed a computer-generated siphonophore and trained it to respond to motion using AI. The result is a film that’s alive. Employing a censor to track the viewer’s movements, Vertical Migration continually reacts to the audience’s behavior. If one moves abruptly, the siphonophore will warily retreat. But if one remains calm, it will cautiously approach, potentially coming so close that the perspective shifts and the viewer sees the world from its point of view.
 
Interspecies Assembly is a series of pink stone sculptures, arranged in a broken circle, that demarcates a space in which humans must temporarily slow down and become active listeners to their co-species. To enforce a state of idleness on humans so that other species can flourish, an “Interspecies Contract” is carved into one of the sculptures, encouraging visitors to change their behaviour.
 
Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART2030
Danish Architecture Center/BLOX, Bryghuspladsen 10.
Vertical Migration at DAC Passage, from sunset until sunrise
Interspecies Assembly at Bryghuspladsen, all day. 
Exhibition period: 28th of October – 28th of November, 2021
 
Supporters 
Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030 is a project that features two artworks: Interspecies Assembly and Vertical Migration. It is generously supported by New Carlsberg Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Beckett Fonden, and Danish Arts Foundation. Vertical Migration was co-commissioned by ART 2030 and TBA21-Academy. Interspecies Assembly was developed in close collaboration with KWY.studio and Kollision. 
With warm thanks to BLOX, Danish Architecture Center, Rasss Consult & Events, Cipex, Shanee Stopnitsky, Daniel McClean, and Rasmus Koch. 
 
Text courtesy of SUPERFLEX.
 
Interspecies Assembly 2021, Photo by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of SUPERFLEX.

SOLO SHOWS 

FOS 'Skin Carpet' at Le Bicolore, Maison du Danemark

22.10.2021 - 19.12.2021

Opening 22.10.2021 at 7 pm

Curator: Diana Baldon

For more information, please click here.


Skin Carpet is the first solo exhibition in France by Danish artist FOS (Thomas Poulsen; b. 1971, lives and works in Copenhagen and Venice). His artistic practice moves across genres, encompassing sculpture, installation, architectural, design and music. Since the beginning of the 2000s, his works have been exploring how the aesthetic language of objects and spaces can define us as social beings.
The exhibition title is an invented word that encodes a dual meaning referring to a double space. On the one hand, it references the haptic experience of human touch on dissonant but smooth surfaces, such as skins and carpets. On the other, it relates to materials whose predominant task is to wrap and frame something else.

The exhibition is staged as a large-scale environment shaped by 240-meter long hand-coloured canvas that sketches out an outsized pair of human lungs. By inhaling and exhaling, the biological process of this organ mechanically moves air through the body while metabolizing oxygen. In FOS ́ sculptural setting, this organic chamber is scaled up to become a soft architectural interior where penetrable barriers enclose our bodies as well as the volume of air that circulates in and out of them.

Few sculptural objects are sparsely arranged within the organ-shaped stage. Among these, a glass tube sculpture expels vapour like a connecting artery. The biomorphic shapes of the gentle fog manifest through the scrutinizing eye of a thermic camera, whose very image is projected on a large screen at the entrance.
Like a radar, the thermographic picture draws continually sinuous forms of glowing light that reveal the otherwise undetectable movements of hot air and substance. While in constant exhalation, the steam morphs into the surrounding environment to flow and transform into new life cycles. Heat is the artistic material, invisible matter dissolving into the viewer ́s body, pervading it front and back in a space fashioned as that body part upon which rests on the human breath.