Ollie Hermanson (Norway), Robert Lisek (Finland), and Andrea Jespersen (Denmark) are the first artists selected for the new residency programme launched by the Art Museums of Skagen. They will take over the museum’s studios in February 2024.
Contemporary art will shortly be making an appearance in the Art Museums of Skagen’s three studios. The first three artists in the museum’s new residency programme Skagen AiR were selected by an enthusiastic jury.
’The three artists have very different approaches and practices, and it’s all very exciting,’
says Lisette Vind Ebbesen, director of the Art Museums of Skagen and member of the jury. Besides Ebbesen, the jury is composed of Jane Jin Kaisen, artist and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Media Arts, Soffie Viemose, musician, and Jens-Christian Grøndahl, writer.
’I can’t wait to see what happens when contemporary artists take over the three studios. These studios are fantastic rooms with incredible stories – P. S. Krøyer and Michael Ancher used to work here, of course – and it’ll be interesting to see how the artists will work in the same rooms in 2024,’ says Ebbesen.
Moreover, Ebbesen looks forward to the interplay between the artists and Skagen:
’Skagen AiR is essentially about mutual gains, making contact, setting up meetings, and dialogue. We make available our collection, a few rooms, and a vibrant history, and I very much look forward to discovering the ideas, interpretations, and perspectives this might trigger in the artists. Also, I hope we’ll see mutual gains for Skagen and the artists. This was precisely what characterised the artists’ colony back in the 1880s: the artists travelled to Skagen, moved about in the town, and created their own art based on their experience. How might that look at the present time? I’m utterly fascinated by the idea.’
The three artists
The three artists who will be spending twelve weeks in the studios of the Art Museums of Skagen from February 2024 are very different: Robert Lizek, Ollie Hermansson, and Andrea Jespersen cover a wide field.
Robert Lizek is a Polish-Finnish mathematician and artist, holds a PhD from the University of Arts in Poznań, and is interested in systems, networks, and processes in computer science, biology, and in a social context. Lizek combines research, music, and different conceptual art forms whilst exploring relationships between biological and mechanical aspects. https://robertlisek.com/
Ollie Hermansson is a performance artist who studied at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and moreover studied performative art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Hermansson’s work is centred on bodies, text, drawings, and what is known among performance artists as ‘tactile gestures’. The idea is to get very close to the audience in a personal and intimate fashion, calling for close audience participation in work focusing on queer experience.
Andrea Jespersen graduated as a visual artist from the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. She works with conceptual art developed through time-consuming craft work – a method she defined in her PhD thesis as ’cerebrally handmade’. She works in various scales with very different materials. https://jespersen.co.uk/
Next?
When the three artists have settled in, their residency period will start with a series of meetings arranged with local associations, organisations, and other possible collaboration partners, who can give the artists some information about the town and the local environment.
Skagen AiR is part of the Art Museums of Skagen’s strategy Flere Fællesskaber (Coming Together), intended to activate our three buildings and gardens as platforms for people getting together through art – which is why such local meetings are an essential part of the residency programme.
The artists’ further work and events where people can meet them and experience their work will be publicised on a current basis on www.skagenskunstmuseer.dk and on the museum’s Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn platforms.
The project is realised through generous and essential financial support from Det Obelske Familiefond, Augustinus Fonden, Nord Energi Fonden, and Dahlers Legat.
