Karen Bennicke - UNFOLDING

Erskine, Hall & Coe are delighted to present Karen Bennicke’s first solo exhibition in the UK.

Bennicke is an acclaimed Danish artist who creates sensorial and complex geometric forms by looking at landscapes and urban structures.  Her work rejects the traditional methods of making wheel-thrown ceramics in favour of a process of using moulds and hand-building with slabs of clay.

One of Denmark's most boundary-defying artists, Bennicke was influenced by Italian futurism, Suprematism and the Bauhaus during the early stages of her career, and now her work is featured in many important international public collections.  These include the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, The Nationalmuseum of Stockholm and The Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen.

"The work of Karen Bennicke does not have instantly recognisable characteristic shapes or forms.  What is typical, however, is the baffling confusion the pieces create in having numerous distantly familiar references, yet defying easy identification.  The duality is perhaps a defining feature, but with every new collection, and even from piece to piece, Bennicke's work can change almost beyond recognition.  The audience is always kept guessing." -- Edmund de Waal

Most recently, Bennicke’s work was included in an exhibition at the Maison du Danemark in Paris.  A recipient of many awards, she won the Thorvald Bindesboll Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2017 and the Lifelong Achievement Award from the Danish Arts Foundation the year before.  Her work is celebrated in the beautifully illustrated monograph, Karen Bennicke - Spatial Destabilization, published in 2016.

Our exhibition, Karen Bennicke - UNFOLDING comprises 24 sculptures and will be open from the 6th through the 28th of November.