7 Fresh Talents to Discover at Copenhagen’s CHART Art Fair

For the sixth edition of CHART, the boutique fair will return to its home at the historic halls of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, one of Europe’s largest art exhibition spaces, situated on the Nyhavn canal in Copenhagen. This year’s iteration, which kicks off on August 31, sees work from some 32 prominent galleries in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland, including collector favorites such as Galerie Forsblom and Galleri Susanne Ottesen.

Since launching the offshoot CHART Design in 2016, the fair has become a hotbed of fresh talent, and this year, 12 design galleries are slated to exhibit at the Den Frie Center of Contemporary Art near Copenhagen’s expansive Østre Anlæg Park. As usual, visitors can expect to see a handful of site-specific installations at both locations.

Below, we round up the artists and designers exhibiting at the fair for the first time:

1. Elina Brotherus | Galleria Heino

Elina Brotherus, Prepare Coffee Using a Metronome, 2017. Photo: Courtesy of Galleria Heino

Working in Finland and France, the Finnish photographer creates unexpected, surreal images of landscapes that are marked by an ominous edge. Recent group shows include the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki and the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. In 2017, she won a photography contest and was awarded an exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris—the first Finish artist to receive the honor. Her works range from about $6,000–$12,000.

Ceramics by Alexandru Murar. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Adorno.

2. Alexandru Murar | Adorno

A self-taught potter from Romania, Murar learned the craft from watching YouTube videos. His passion for ceramics quickly developed, and the young talent moved to Denmark, where he undertook a design degree at the prestigious Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Collectors are drawn to his playful wheel-thrown pieces that riff on traditional kitchenware and principles of symmetry. While he often works with brands to create functional objects, the series shown at CHART is part of his conceptual work.

Pearla Pigao’s Sinus. Photo: Courtesy of CHART

3. Pearla Piago | Sinus for Designmuseum Denmark

The buzzworthy Norwegian artist Pearla Pigao’s new work titled Sinus will be showcased at the nearby Designmuseum Denmark during CHART. Inspired by a theremin (an electronic musical instrument), Pigao’s large-scale metal textile installation emits sound as viewers interact with it, examining the multitude of ways that sound, space, and individuals interact.

Christoph Finkel’s wooden vessels. Photo: Courtesy of the designer and Berg Gallery

4. Christoph Finkel | Berg Gallery

Stockholm-based Berg Gallery showcases wooden vessels by Christoph Finkel, who puts a fresh spin on the natural material. The German designer’s wooden vessels, crafted from hollowed-out 100-year-old walnut trees, first started gaining traction at Milan Design Week 2012 and can now be found in museum collections throughout Europe as well as in the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the U.S. The designer’s medium of choice comes as no surprise; he descends from three generations of cabinetmakers.

Alice Anderson’s site-specific installation. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Chart Art Fair

5. Alice Anderson | ‘Connexions’

The British-French artist’s immersive installation marks her first exhibition in the Nordic region. Installed in the large central room of the Den Frie Center of Contemporary Art, the work comprises large-scale tangled Internet cables, which have been wrapped in her signature colored metallic wire. The tactile, craft-inspired work is a response to our increasingly digital world as she questions our relationship with it.

Katja Larsson, Compact I, 2015. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Cecilia Hillström Gallery.

6. Katja Larsson | Cecilia Hillström Gallery

The emerging, Stockholm-based artist brings a tactile and gritty edge to her artmaking, striking forms in a range of media from marble dust (pictured) to Jesmonite and powder-coated steel.

CHART Art Fair will take place at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ Kunsthal Charlottenborg and at the Den Frie Center of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen from August 31 to September 2.