Danish and Copenhagen-based artist Maria Lenskjold graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Art in 2011, but has been making art since childhood. Growing up in a commune based in a big house with pink curtains and checkered green floors with purple walls, this whimsical play with colours and shape clearly left its mark. 

Playfulness is a constant in Lenskjold’s artistry and is shown through her way of challenging common pictorial artistic categories with unpretentious genre breaks. This is particularly clear in Lenskjold’s way of working with ceramics. Lenskjold’s ceramic artworks often lead the viewer to recognize an implicit function with the object, for example a vase, only to discover by closer inspection that it is merely an abstraction or a caricature of said object. By doing this, Lenskjold puts crafts and in-depth material studies over functional lifestyle objects, allowing the aesthetic experience to be the primary function of the object. 

Maria Lenskjold Cloud Vase Maria Lenskjold Artist Portrait

 

In the same way that the surroundings from her childhood made their mark on her artistry, Maria Lenskjold has taken inspiration from her surroundings when creating the series ‘Himmel eskapisme’ for The Ode To. A year marked by a pandemic and a lockdown, naturally meant spending a lot of time at home. For Lenskjold that meant many hours looking at the sky from her balcony, taking photos of the different colours and sceneries appearing there. This has been used as inspiration for the decoration of this series of ceramic sculptures, which has been created using techniques such as molding, painting and sgrafitto.

Maria Lenskjold Handmade Sculpture   Maria Lenskjold Sculpture

 

Lenskjold’s way of practice puts the essence of the craft front and center - both in process and finished result. This is something we value highly at The Ode To and which is why we are so excited to have her in our selection. See Maria Lenskjold’s full collection here.

Maria Lenskjold Sculptures