Viera Collaro (born 1946) is a Slovak-Danish artist whose work in light art relies on the effects of light on colour, space and reflection. In addition to her artworks and installations, since the early 1990s she has decorated a number of Danish buildings including Copenhagen University's South Campus on Amager. In 2002, she was awarded the Eckersberg Medal [1] [2] and in 2015, she received the prestigious Thorvaldsen Medal. [3]
The daughter of a Slovak mother and a Greek father, Collaro was born in Bratislava, then part of Czechoslovakia, on 30 June 1946. [4] She studied at the University of Michigan and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Working in the United States in the 1960s, she came under the influence of minimalism, pop art and concept art. [5] In particular, she was inspired by the artists Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg while her adoption of neon lighting as an art form was based on the work of Dan Flavin. [2] Her familiarization with Danish culture has stemmed in part from her membership since 1991 of the art groups Ny Abstraktion and Grønningen. [4]
Collaro was fascinated by the thriving activity in the city of Copenhagen with all its lights and reflections. The extent to which they influenced her work can be seen in her creations which frequently combine painting, three-dimensional objects and fluorescent tubes. Geometrical figures are also a feature of her work, used either systematically or intuitively. [2] Her 1000 farver (1000 Colours), created in 1979 in collaboration with Niels Nedergaard, has been exhibited in the National Gallery of Denmark's permanent exhibition (2015–16). [4] [6]
Collaro is considered a pioneer in the integration of light art and architecture. One of her earlier architectural works is Ringen (the Ring, 1998) on the façade of Kulturhuset (The House of Culture) in Randers. [4] Among her later architectural achievements are light art applications in Aarhus University (2000), Avedøre Kraftværk 2 (2001), the University of Copenhagen (2003), the Technical University of Denmark (2004), Plejecentret Violskrænten, Grenå (2012), and the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, Søborg (2013). Art museums throughout Denmark have hosted her solo exhibitions. [2] [7]
Carl Christian Constantin Hansen was one of the painters associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting. He was deeply interested in literature and mythology, and inspired by art historian Niels Laurits Høyen, he tried to recreate a national historical painting based on Norse mythology. He painted also many altarpieces and portraits, including the monumental oil painting The Danish Constituent Assembly between 1861 and 1865.
Laurits Tuxen was a Danish painter and sculptor specialising in figure painting. He was also associated with the Skagen Painters. He was the first head of Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler, an art school established in the 1880s to provide an alternative to the education offered by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Eva Koppel née Ditlevsen was a Danish architect who together with her husband Nils ran one of Denmark's largest architectural firms.
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture or Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole is an institution of higher education in Copenhagen, Denmark under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, which is the oldest architecture and art school in the world, for more than 250 years.
Eva Louise Buus is a Danish artist. A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, she has exhibited in Denmark, Germany and Greenland. Her landscapes are principally concerned with the effects of light and darkness on the appearance of her images. In 2015, she exhibited works in Fanø Museum which she had created by subjecting plates of copper to the effects of various acids, inspired by the landscapes of the Swedish painter Carl Johan Forsberg. More recently her metallic works have drawn on his recently rediscovered watercolours of women.
Eva Isabel Koch is a Danish sculptor who has gained fame with her video installations. In 2011, she was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal.
Kirsten Dehlholm is a Danish artist and artistic theatre director. She has created over 30 presentations combining scenography with performance art, employing a wide variety of techniques, media and materials.
Christian Lemmerz is a German-Danish sculptor and visual artist, who attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara, Italy from 1978–82 and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1983-88. Despite the classic sculptor training in Carrara, Lemmerz drew his main inspiration from the post-war process-oriented Pop Art; not least from his fellow countryman, Joseph Beuys.
Kirsten Møller Ortwed is a Danish artist, now based in Cologne, Germany. She is noted for her striking sculptures in public spaces and her sometimes surprising combinations of traditional and unconventional materials.
Kasper Jacob Heiberg was a Danish painter and sculptor. Though largely forgotten today, in retrospect Heiberg is considered to have made an important contribution to the development of Danish painting.
Morten Piil was a Danish writer and film critic. He received a Bodil Honorary Award in 2002 for his "long-standing contribution to Danish film literature".
Business- and Agricultural Bank of Jutland is a listed building and a former Danish bank in Aarhus.
Berit Heggenhougen-Jensen is a Danish artist who played a central role in the Danish Wild Youth artistic trend in the 1980s. She gained recognition from her participation in the 1982 exhibition Kniven på hovedet held at Tranegården in Gentofte.
Inger Frimann Hanmann was a Danish artist, specializing in painting and enamelwork. Her younger daughter Charlotte Hanmann is also a photographer, painter and graphic artist. Inger Hanman's best known enamel art works are displayed in Copenhagen Airport and Danske Bank.
Charlotte Hanmann is a Danish photographer, painter and graphic artist, capturing the urban environment with processed photographs.
Eva Sørensen was a prolific Danish sculptor and ceramist whose granite and marble works are exhibited in museums and public spaces across Denmark. She died in Verbania in Italy.
Naja Abelsen is a Danish-Greenlandic painter and illustrator. Much of her art is inspired by the myths and sagas of Greenland. In addition to her work as a book illustrator, she has designed 18 stamps for Post Greenland.
Marie Henriques was a Danish painter who created landscapes, figure paintings and portraits, initially in the Realist style but increasingly under the influence of Impressionism. She also painted watercolours of ancient architecture and sculpture. In 1916, she was a founding member of the Society of Women Artists .
Catherine (Cathinca) Caroline Engelhart Amyot (1845–1926) was a Danish painter who specialized in portraits and genre works. She travelled widely, creating a number of works of historical interest. In 1869 she began exhibiting in Düsseldorf and Copenhagen. After marrying the English physician, Thomas Amyon, from 1879 to 1890 she exhibited frequently in the Paris Salon and in London's Royal Academy of Arts.
Bodil Marie Kaalund-Jørgensen (1930–2016) was an award-winning Danish painter, textile artist and writer, who is remembered above all for her artwork in Danish churches and for her Bible illustrations. She was also a major contributor to the recognition of Greenland's cultural heritage, thanks in part to her Grønlands Kunst, published in English in 1983 as The Art of Greenland.
