On Tuesday, Design Miami made an auspicious debut, not only owing to its ne-plus-ultra roster—many of the galleries showing in their hometown—but also to its extraordinary venue: the Hôtel de Maisons, an 18th-century mansion near the Musée d’Orsay that Karl Lagerfeld called home for roughly two decades (last month, it drew attention as the location for the Marni show).
Jakob Jørgensen was born in 1977 in Nyborg, Denmark. As his interest in large scale steel sculpture developed, he submitted a proposal to the Danish National Workshop in 2017, and was granted access to their vast metalworking facilities. He continued his exploration of the medium, building a dedicated studio tailored to working with steel pipe on the island of Bornholm in 2020. Jørgensen’s work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions including at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, France; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; Designmuseum, Copenhagen, Denmark; and the 21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Finn Juhl Prize, the Bodum Design Award, and the IFDA Goldleaf Award.
From his workshop on a remote island in the Baltic Sea, the artist crafts extraordinary totems using industrial pipes.
For the past two years, a dazzling type of alchemy has been taking place on the remote Danish island of Bornholm, a Baltic Sea stronghold that’s geographically closer to Poland and Sweden than Denmark. There, amid the rugged sylvan landscape, one of the country’s leading creatives, Jakob Jørgensen, has conjured a veritable forest of captivating totems by welding and further manipulating low-carbon steel pipes. Taking inspiration from the wooded island’s abundance of trees, the monumental works resulting from this painstaking process have now gone on view at HB381, the contemporary art gallery founded by Juliet Burrows and Kim Hostler in Tribeca.
With his first solo exhibition within the United States just around the corner, Jakob Jørgensen’s sculptural works have grown – both in scale and ambition. These latest works mark his individual practices transition from a design led studio to one that is exploring materiality and the purely sculptural. What remains from his first tubular steel piece back in 2017 through to this latest collection is Jørgensen’s inquisitive nature towards his chosen medium – heating, pushing, expanding, compressing and deforming the humble steel tube in order to create new expressions.
JAKOB JØRGENSEN
Danish, b. 1977
EDUCATION
2008
Danish School of Design, Department of Furniture and Space, Copenhagen, Denmark
2001
Scandinavian Design College, Randers, Denmark
1999
Apprenticeship at Studio Palla, Pietrasanta, Carrara, Italy
1998
Guildhall, School of Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom
1996
The New Art School, Odense, Denmark
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Take Root, HB381, New York, NY
2018
Totem, Galerie Maria Wettergren, Paris, France
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Made: Sølvgade 19, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022
Matter at Hand: Ten Artists in Denmark, Hostler Burrows, Los Angeles, CA
Metalworks - Designing & Making, Konschthal Esch, Alzette, Luxembourg
2021
Matter at Hand: Ten Artists in Denmark, Hostler Burrows, New York, NY
2020
Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg, Denmark
2019
Japan tur/retur, Exhibition of Oryoki Bowls designed with Line Depping, A. Petersen Collection & Craft Gallery,
Copenhagen, Denmark
2018
Halstrøm, Odgaard, Depping, Jørgensen, A. Petersen Collection & Craft Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017
Everyday Life, 21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan
Side by Side – Outside, SE17, Designmuseum in collaboration with Snedkernes Afterårsudstilling, Copenhagen, Denmark
2016
Pitch Black, SE16, Snedkernes Afterårsudstilling, Copenhagen, Denmark
2015
Mindcraft 15, San Simpliciano Cloister, Milan, Italy
Mindcraft 15, Designmuseum, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014
Barca, Designmuseum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Dwell On Design, 82Mercer, New York, USA
Mindcraft 14, Ventura Lambrate, Milan, Italy
Furniture Set in a Textile Universe, SE 14, Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
2013
Storage, SE13, Designmuseum, Copenhagen, Denmark
2012
Generation Design, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, France
Ampersand House, Brussels, Belgium
Mindcraft 12, Ventura Lambrate, Milan, Italy
2011
My 30th Birthday, SE11, Designmuseum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Bodum Design Award, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Wood Couture, Galerie Maria Wettergren, Paris, France
IFDA, Asahikawa Furniture Center, Japan
2010
Whiteout, SE10, Snedkernes Afterårsudstilling, Copenhagen, Denmark
Designers Investigating, Øksenehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Uncovered, Milan Furniture Fair, Italy
Greenhouse, Stockholm Furniture Fair, Sweden
2009
Skud på Stammen, Copenhagen Technical School, Denmark
A Chair for Negotiation, SE9, Snedkernes Afterårsudstilling, Copenhagen, Denmark
2008
Architecture that Moves, The Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark
Living Design Center Ozone, Tokyo, Japan
Graduate Exhibition, The Danish School of Design, Copenhagen, Denmark
AWARDS & GRANTS
2015 Danish Arts Council Grant
2015 Finn Juhl Prize
2012 Wallpaper Design Awards
2011 Bodum Design Award
2008 IFDA Japan, Goldleaf Award
COLLECTIONS
Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
A. Petersen, Copenhagen, Denmark
