Karen Bennicke (b. 1943, Denmark) is known for her sculptures composed of complex geometric figures, which superimpose cartographic overviews of city life, constructed landscapes, and architectural diagrams onto three-dimensional ceramic forms. Her systematic process translates data points describing urban and architectural space into a complex network of carvings, excavations, and crisscrossing topographies. City streets, urban parks, traffic routes, and subway lines are layered on top of one another, compressed into an afterimage of the forces that formed them. Ultimately, Bennicke’s slab-formed sculptures develop a quality of artifacts or fossils. While each work arises from the implementation of a set of rules, the end result is enigmatic and magnetic, charged with arcane symbolism. The earth-toned terracotta and monochrome geometries prompt philosophical rumination on the city as a set of contested relations; her sculptures suggest that, obscured by time, traffic, and constant dynamism, our environment is ultimately unknowable, constantly in a process of formation and sedimentation.
Bennicke's work is featured in many museum public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm, and the Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen. She is the recipient of the Thorvald Bindesboll Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and a Lifelong Achievement Award from the Danish Arts Foundation.
Danish art-writer Charlotte Jul shares an excerpt on Karen Bennicke and Peder Rasmussen from the book Danish Creatives.
Bennicke and Rasmussen are two of Denmark’s most experienced ceramic artists. While they have lived and worked together for the past 52 years, their practices are very different. Karen’s works speak to the idioms of architecture, mathematics, and Constructivism, while Peder’s work tells singular stories through archetypal forms, symbols, decorations, and references.
Hostler Burrows, a gallery with outposts in New York and Los Angeles, is offering works by the Danish artists Karen Bennicke (b. 1943) and Marianne Nielsen (b. 1971).
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Manhattan Portraits, HB381, New York, NY
2023
Spatial Collage, Peach Corner, Frederiksberg, Denmark
2022
Spatial Collage, Modern Shapes Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2019
Karen Bennicke: Unfolding, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
2018
Visions Spatiales, Maison du Danemark, Paris, France
2016
Urban Complex, Banja Rathnov Gallery & Kunsthadel, Copenhagen, Denmark
2010
Diamonds Are…, Ann Linnemann Gallery, Contemporary Ceramic Art Copenhagen, Denmark
2008
50th Anniversary Exhibition, Nastved Museum Boderne, Nastved, Denmark
2005
Karen Bennicke: Action—Architectones, Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY
2003
Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris, France
2001
Form I Form (Form within Form), Galleri Norby Copenhagen, Denmark
Status: Retrospektiv (Status: Retrospective), CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, Middelfart, Denmark
1999
Galerie Bjornen, Stockholm, Sweden
Persona, Udstillingssted for Ny Keramik, Copenhagen, Denmark
1998
Thema, Galerie Norby, Copenhagen, Denmark
1995
Tilbageblik, Keramiske Arbejder 1957-95 (Retrospective, Ceramic Works 1957-95),
Nastved Museum Boderne, Nastved, Denmark
1994
Ribe Art Museum, Ribe, Denmark
1991
Galerie S.C.A.G., Copenhagen, Denmark
1988
Galerie Umbra, Lund, Sweden
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019
Formes Limites, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris, France
100 Ans de Céramique Danoise, Maison du Danemark, Paris, France
100 Years of Danish Ceramics, Sofienholm, Copenhagen, Denmark
Ceramic Momentum 2019, CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, Middelfart, Denmark
2018
Made in Denmark, Grassi Museum of Applied Art, Leipzig, Germany 51 E 10th ST
Geometric Scales (with Masamichi Yoshikawa), Ann Linnemann Gallery Copenhagen, Denmark
2017
Banja Rathnov Gallery, Copenhagen Denmark
2015
Random Growth, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Many a Slip, Marsden Woo Gallery, London, UK
2014
Fremsynet Tilbageblik (Forward-Looking Retrospect), Kunstetagerne, Hobro, Denmark
Did, Ting go Tanker (Time, Things, and Thoughts), Nastved Museum Boderne, Nastved, Denmark (Curator)
The Time is Always Now, Banja Rathnov Gallery & Kunsthandel, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013
Architectural Rounds, Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Med Leret Som Gidsel (Holding the Clay Hostage), Vestjyllands Kunstpavillon, Videbak, Denmark
TERRES: Copenhagen Ceramics Invites, Galerie Maria Lund, Paris, France
From Frame to Space, Nivaagaards Malerisamling, Niva, Denmark
Danish Design at the House, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
2012
Architectural Rounds, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark
Geometrical Evolution, Copenhagen Ceramics, Copenhagen, Denmark
Justus Lipsius, Puls Contemporary Ceramics for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs & the Danish EU presidency, Brussels, Belgium
2011
Puls Contemporary Ceramics, Brussels, Belgium
2010
European Ceramic Context 2010, Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Gudhjem, Denmark
Color, Secret Relationship between Ceramics and Colors, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
På Tværs (Across), Tap I, Carlsberg, Copenhagen, Denmark
2009
Dansk Keramik (Danish Ceramics), Kunstetagerne, Hobro, Denmark
2008
Vessel | Sculpture, German and International Ceramics since 1946, Grassi Museum of Applied Art, Leipzig, Germany
2007
Biennale for Craft and Design 2007, Trapholt Museum of Modern Art and Design, Kolding, Denmark
Everything is Flux, Drud & Koppe Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
END, Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark & Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal, Norway
2006
Museum of Applied Art, International Academy of Ceramics, Riga, Latvia
2005
Kommunikationsstykker (Communication Pieces), Galleri Norby, Copenhagen, Denmark
Scandinavian Design beyond the Myth, The Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague Czech Republic; the Museum of Decorative Arts, Budapest, Hungary; The Museum of Applied Arts
2004
From the Kilns of Denmark Contemporary Danish Ceramics, Maison du Danemark, Paris, France; Felleshus, Pan-Nordic Building, The Nordic Embassies, Berlin, Germany; Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris, France
Scandinavian Design Beyond the Myth, Palazzo della Triennale, Milan, Italy & The Design Museum, Ghent, Belgium
Puls Contemporary Ceramics, Brussels, Belgium
Biennale for Craft & Design, Trapholt Museum of Modern Art and Design, Kolding, Denmark Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalbor, Denmark
COLLECTIONS
Brandts, Odense, Denmark
CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, Middelfart, Denmark
Danish Arts Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark
Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Devonshire Collection Chatsworth House, Chatsworth, UK
Grassi Museum of Applied Art, Leipzig, Germany
Hoganas Museum, Hoganas, Sweden
Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Hohr-Grenzhausen, Germany
Keramion, Frechen, Germany
Kobenhavns Billedkunstudvalg, Copenhagen, Denmark
KOS Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Koge, Denmark
Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Museum of Applied Art, Riga, Latvia
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
Nastved Museum Boderne, Nastved, Denmark
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
The New Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway
Public Art Agency Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden
Rohsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schleswig, Germany
Trapholt Museum of Modern Art and Design, Kolding, Denmark
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
AWARDS & GRANTS
2024
Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation of 1968, Denmark
2017
Thorvald Bindesboll Medal, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark
2016
The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
Lifelong Achievement Award, Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
2014
The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
2013
Visual Arts Project Funding, The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
2012
Danish Crafts, Denmark
2011
Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation, Denmark
2010
Annie og Otto Johs. Detlefs Keramikpris, Denmark
2009
The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fund, Denmark
Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation, Denmark
2008
Inga og Ejvind Kold Christensens Haderspris, Denmark
The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
2005
Danish Crafts, Denmark
2004
Travel Grants, The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fund, Denmark
2003
The Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fund, Denmark
2002
New York Grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture, Denmark
2001
The Danish arts Foundation, Denmark
West Zealand County’s Craftsperson of the Year, Denmark
2000
Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation, Denmark
1997
Three-year working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation, Denmark
1996
Center for Dansk Billedkunst (Center for Danish Visual Arts), Denmark
1995
The CDK Prize, Denmark
Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation, Denmark
MEMBERSHIPS
Danish Visual Artists, Denmark
The Society of Artists, Denmark
International Academy of Ceramics, IAC
