COPENHAGEN.- The Danish sculptor Øivind Nygård (b. 1948) uses both abstract and naturalistic elements in his beautiful, often enigmatic sculptures. At first glance, regular, geometric shapes dominate his works, but the surfaces and seductive finish are often broken by an inner mobility and mutability that creates new layers of experience – both literally and figuratively.

In our sensory perception of sculpture, we use both our gaze and our bodies. What we experience visually is based on our experiences from physical contact, for example our notions of the temperature and surface structure of material. At the same time, moving about makes sculpture continually change before our eyes.

This sensory perception is accommodated in Øivind Nygård’s work by a number of recognisable elements. They may remind us of something, but the works also possess an openness which we ourselves have the possibility of filling out: the work comes into being in this field between recognisability and openness.

The classical effects of sculpture are at play here: the effects of light and shade, movement and stillness, the relation between the sculpture and our own body. But in contrast to classical, traditional sculpture, Nygård works with displacements which mirror the mutability and complexity of our own time.

The exhibition shows a retrospective cross-section of Øivind Nygård’s artistic production, and in this way draws a picture of an artist who is continually and insistently sharpening his expression and the elements that have absorbed him since the start of his career. Øivind Nygård has arranged the exhibition himself together with art educator Anne Grethe Uldall. The exhibition presents a selection of older and all-new sculptures.

Øivind Nygård was born in Norway in 1948, but lives and works in Copenhagen.

Øivind Nygård has exhibited at home and abroad. He is represented in several museums and has carried out several decorations for public spaces. Øiving Nygård has also occupied a great number of honorary offices in Danish art life.