PAST EXHIBITIONS - 2026

BUDDED IMPRESSIONS

Turi Heisselberg Pedersen (DK)

19  February – 28 March 2026

Exhibition preview on 19 February from 16.00 to 19.00

Opening address at 17.00 by Rigetta Klint, writer and publisher of the HÅNDVÆRK bookazine

Nature is the constant focal point in Turi Heisselberg Pedersen’s art. She explores our complex relationship with nature, from plants and geology to the worlds that lie hidden above and below the earth’s surface, often unnoticed by the human eye.

Nature has its own vital expressions, both poetic and dramatic. Something is smouldering underneath the surface, as small, unseen events unfold. Everything is connected, but sometimes, human beings intervene and dictate the state of affairs by cutting, trimming and controlling.

The pieces presented in this exhibition are forms and figures that spring from Heisselberg Pedersen’s inner vocabulary of memories and observations of nature. The sculptural objects appear as stylized abstractions and rhythmic sequences echoing nature’s own language of form. Her inspiration ranges from the microscopic to the monumental: an opening bud, the sliding movement of a landslip or traces of human intervention. Like fragments of an almost surreal world, the ceramic objects move freely between geological shifts and organic growth sequences.

A series of small wall reliefs form a counterbalance to the stringently modelled sculptures. In these wall-mounted pieces, the focus is on the process and on the intrinsic nature of the material. Slabs of clay are thrown onto selected human-made and natural objects to pick up their imprint. The result is a series of playful and random ‘snapshots’ that manifest as a form of nature in their own right.

Turi Heisselberg Pedersen (b.1965, DK) graduated from Kunsthåndværkerskolen (School of Arts and Crafts) in Kolding (1990). She lives and works in Frederiksberg and taught at Kolding School of Design from 1994 to 2007. From 2008 to 2025, she was an external examiner at the Royal Danish Academy. She founded her own studio in 1990 and mainly produces one-off ceramic pieces but has also created design projects for Kähler.

She has presented in solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in Denmark and abroad and is represented in a number of public and private collections, including the National Ceramics Museum in Sèvres (FR), Magnelli, Ceramics Museum (FR), the New Carlsberg Foundation (DK), Designmuseum Danmark (DK) and Clay Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark (DK). Turi Heisselberg Pedersen has received numerous grants, including from  Annie og Otto Johs. Detlefs Keramikpris, travel grant (DK), Bayerischer Staatspreis (DE), XXIst International Biennale of Vallauris (FR), Ole Haslunds Kunstnerfond (DK), the Danish Arts Foundation’s three-year working grant and Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation (DK).

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FOLDED CONSTRUCTIONS

Astrid Sleire (NO)

8 January to 14 February 2026

The exhibition is opened at 16.00 by the Norwegian ambassador to Denmark, Tone Allers, followed by an introduction to the exhibition by editor and writer Charlotte Jul (MA).

Artist talk by Astrid Sleire and Jorunn Veiteberg on Saturday, 10 January, at 13.00

Astrid Sleire is a significant figure in Norwegian ceramics, known for abstract pieces that combine construction and fragility. Her works emerge at the intersection of form and near collapse as fragments of architecture or landscapes in transformation. Working in her studio in Bergen, she pursues an explorative and material-conscious approach that lends her ceramic universe a characteristic intensity. Sleire’s practice revolves around experimentation, a movement in material and form towards a precarious position and a balancing act, where the construction plays a supporting role while also making an immediate statement.

Astrid Sleire’s works highlight the constructed and assembled – architectural qualities. In the exhibition Folded Constructions, she explores the movements of the material and how the shape can create a space for new possibilities. She aims to strike a balance between construction and expression, between the structural and the immediate.

The clay is rolled out into thin sheets and then folded and joined together into zigzag-like structures. Based on the natural colour of the clay, Sleire constructs colour shades through layers of underglaze. Colour patches and stripes move across the object, forming in a pattern that may both reveal and conceal, highlight and camouflage.

Sleire’s works balance at the tipping point between stable and unsettled – between clarity and visual disruptions that invite new interpretations.

Astrid Sleire (b.1961) graduated from the The National College of Art and Design in Bergen in 1988. Sleire has presented pieces in invited and juried exhibitions in Norway and abroad. Her art has been purchased for a number of collections and museums, among them the City of Oslo Art Collection, the National Museum in Oslo, KODE Bergen, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum and Keramikmuseum Westerwald in Germany. She has carried out several commissions for art in the public space and is the recipient of the 2022 Finn Erik Alsos Memorial Award.

Selected exhibitions: SKOG Art Space, Oslo (with Karin Blomgren); Brev til lyset, 2024, Østfold kunstsenter, Fredrikstad; Opphold, 2023, FORMAT, Oslo; Falle til føye, 2023, Kunstgarasjen, Bergen; Bakkekontakt, 2021, RAM gallery, Oslo; Fortune Tellers, 2022/2023, curated by Randi Grov Berger, Kunsthall Grenland, Porsgrunn.

https://www.astridsleire.no/

The exhibition has received support from Norwegian Crafts, Norwegian Association for Craft Artists, the City of Bergen and the Norwegian Embassy in Copenhagen. 

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OPENING SPEECH BY CHARLOTTE JUL