Den Frie Udstillingsbygning

Name: Den Frie Udstillingsbygning
Address: Oslo Plads 1, København Ø, Copenhagen, 2100, DK
Telephone: +4533122803
Price range: £

Hjem
Danmark
Copenhagen
Den Frie Udstillingsbygning

Den Frie Udstillingsbygning er kunstnernes hus og byder på mere end 8 samtidskunst udstillinger om år F. Willumsen i 1898.

Den Frie Udstillingsbygning har særligt fokus på samtidskunstneriske fællesskaber, kollektive udstillinger samt eksperimenterende grupperinger og netværk. Den Frie Udstillingsbygning er et totalværk tegnet af billedkunstneren J. Huset er bygget af kunstnere til kunstnere og stræber i dag mod at sammensætte et interessant og varieret udstillingsprogram, der udfordrer udstillingsbygningens særlige a

rkitektur. Der vises årligt 8 udstillinger, hvoraf de fleste er gruppeudstillinger og to festivaler. Derudover præsenteres soloudstillinger af enten yngre lovende kunstnere eller kunstnere, der kunsthistorisk har ydet et betydningsfuldt bidrag.

12/06/2026

Closed until Friday, 19.06.2026.

Due to flooding from yesterday’s heavy rain, Den Frie is temporarily closed, including our café Pegasus, while we address the affected areas.

We can’t wait to reopen our doors on Friday at 16:00 for the opening of the exhibition of the 2026 recipients of Carl Nielsen & Anne Marie Carl-Nielsens Legat, and welcome you back to our café Pegasus and the exhibition ‘Sand and Water’ by Senga Nengudi.

See you under clearer skies!

10/06/2026

Free admission across all floors!

While ARK Journal presents the third edition of DESIGN / DIALOGUE in our upper galleries and Café Pegasus through 13 June as part of , Senga Nengudi’s ‘Sand and Water’ remains open in our lower-level gallery OSLO.

For more than five decades, Senga Nengudi has developed a distinctive practice that moves across sculpture, performance, dance, and language, connecting humble everyday materials with philosophical and spiritual ideas. At the heart of the exhibition is a new site-specific installation for Den Frie, where materials such as sand, metal, glass, textiles, sound and found objects come together in a fragmented landscape shaped by memory, labour, nature and transformation. Alongside it, Water Compositions – sculptures of pigmented water contained within transparent plastic forms – appear as fragile, uncanny bodies suspended between the organic and the artificial, the fluid and the fixed.

‘Senga Nengudi: Sand and Water’ is on view until 13.09.26.

Photos by

05/06/2026

Last chance this weekend to experience Vienna–Copenhagen: Den Frie Udstilling 2026 and discover works by 170 artists from artists’ associations Wiener Secession and Den Frie Udstilling.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the artists’ association model. The idea of an artist-run exhibition community on the artists’ own terms – independent of institutional agendas and the market forces of the gallery world – resonates with a renewed interest in artist-curated exhibitions, self-organised exhibition spaces and other collective formats. Artists’ associations have, however, often been perceived as a local Danish phenomenon. With this exhibition, Den Frie Udstilling aims to demonstrate that both historical and contemporary international parallels exist.

“Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026 is organised by Kristoffer Akselbo and Henrik Plenge Jakobsen from Den Frie Udstilling, and Sofie Thorsen, Michael Part and Jun Yang from Wiener Secession, assisted by Clemens Battisti.

The exhibition is generously supported by Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport Republic of Austria, Bildrecht, Østrig; Statens Kunstfond; Augustinus Fonden; Dansk Tennis Fond.

Photos by

04/06/2026

On Friday 19 June, 16 – 19, Den Frie opens the exhibition of the 2026 recipients of the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant and celebrates this year’s honourees with a public award ceremony.

Awarded every second year, the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant is Denmark’s largest honorary art award, recognising artists whose work has made a significant contribution to contemporary sculpture while continuing the legacy of Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, one of Denmark’s most influential sculptors and a longstanding member of Den Frie.

This year’s recipients are Malene Bjelke, Olafur Eliasson, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Pia Rönicke, Pernille With Madsen and Uffe Isolotto, each occupying one of Den Frie’s six galleries with presentations of both new and earlier works.

Admission is free throughout the exhibition period in order to give as many people as possible the opportunity to experience six artistic practices that have made a significant contribution to sculpture within both the Danish and international contemporary art scene.

Graphic design:

03/06/2026

Final week to roam among 170 artists from Den Frie Udstilling and Wiener Secession in “Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026.

Like Den Frie, the Vienna Secession was founded in the 1890s, and the two institutions remain among the few exhibition venues in Europe still housed and run by artists. As is the case of Den Frie Udstilling, Wiener Secession also counts some of the country’s most prominent artists among its members.

The exhibition brings together 45 artists from Den Frie Udstilling in dialogue with 125 Austrian colleagues from Wiener Secession in an energetic display that highlights the potential of collective formats and collegial exchange.

“Vienna-Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026 is on view till 07.06.26.

“Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026 is organised by Kristoffer Akselbo and Henrik Plenge Jakobsen from Den Frie Udstilling, and Sofie Thorsen, Michael Part and Jun Yang from Wiener Secession, assisted by Clemens Battisti.

Photos by

27/05/2026

‘Senga Nengudi: Sand and Water’ is now on view in our sub-level gallery OSLO.

A central figure in recent American art history, Nengudi has over five decades developed a practice spanning sculpture, performance, dance, and poetry. The exhibition centres around a new site-specific installation unfolding as an abstract fragmented landscape and pulsating visual field, alongside a series of iconic water sculptures from the 1970s made of pigmented water temporarily enclosed in transparent plastic volumes.

‘Sand and Water’ is the seventh exhibition in our OSLO-programme presenting commissioned solo projects made specifically for the sub-level gallery at Den Frie.

‘Senga Nengudi: Sand and Water’ runs till 13.09.26.

The exhibition is supported by Det Obelske Familiefond, Augustinus Fonden, Statens Kunstfond, Dansk Tennis Fond, Beckett-Fonden and Glashofs Legat.

Photos by

27/05/2026

Join us on Thursday 04.06.2026, 17.00 — 20.00 as Lille Musikkreds rounds off this season with a joint listening session in our café Pegasus alongside food and drinks throughout the evening.

Den Frie has a long history of housing artist communities across disciplines and generations.
Over the past six months, lille musikkreds has gathered weekly behind Café Pegasus at Den Frie, where producers and musicians have developed music, shared feedback and experimented together with guest teachers such as Trentemøller, Erika de Casier, TMI Tammi, Albert Hertz and Snuggle.

Led by producer and songwriter David Engelbrecht, the biannual initiative is aimed at anyone interested in becoming part of an artistic community and developing their musical expression and creative process.

This semester’s participants: Alexander Billing Krabbe, Andreas Haglund, Anton Mandrix, Isak Tullin, Kastanie Blicher, Malthe Sejthen, Mathilde Hjulmand, Nicolai Lenes, Selma Corry and Olivia Danielsson.

Swipe to learn more about the initiative and keep an eye on Lille Musikkreds’ Instagram for updates on the next application round.

Video by and Westsea Studio
Music by

25/05/2026

Get closer to the sculptures around Den Frie with our new audioguide!

Listen to the voice of May Lifschitz and words by Nanna Friis opening pathways into the three sculptures by women artists permanently placed around the building: Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, among the founders of Den Frie in the 1890s, Danish contemporary artist Sophia Kalkau and internationally acclaimed German artist Isa Genzken.

The audioguide invites the public to explore and immerse themselves in three sculptures that are not only significant works in their own right, but also reflect Den Frie’s ongoing dialogue between the historical and the contemporary, the local and the international.
Look for the signs around the building and scan the QR codes to learn more about the works.

Narrated by: May Lifschitz
Texts about the sculptures: Nanna Friis
Text about the building: Martin Wendelbo

Photo 1: Anders Sune Berg
Photo 2: Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, Sketch for a sculpture of Queen Margrete I on horseback, 1897.
Photo 3: Sophia Kalkau, Egyptian Egg, 2016.
Photo 4: Isa Genzken, Vollmond, 1997/2023

20/05/2026

A multitude of works by 170 artists currently spreads through the halls of Den Frie in “Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026, running until 07.06.26.

Stop by and experience the annual exhibition of Den Frie Udstilling, as 45 members of the artists’ association have invited 125 Austrian colleagues from the sister institution Wiener Secession to participate as guest exhibitors.

Like Den Frie, the Vienna Secession was founded in the 1890s, and the two institutions remain among the few exhibition venues in Europe still housed and run by artists. As is the case of Den Frie Udstilling, Wiener Secession also counts some of the country’s most prominent artists among its members.

“Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026 is organised by Kristoffer Akselbo and Henrik Plenge Jakobsen from Den Frie Udstilling, and Sofie Thorsen, Michael Part and Jun Yang from Wiener Secession, assisted by Clemens Battisti.

Photos by

18/05/2026

The artists of Den Frie Udstilling arriving with their works ahead of the annual opening, 1937.

Den Frie Udstilling is Denmark’s oldest artists’ association, founded in 1891 as an alternative to the censored exhibitions at Charlottenborg, which at the time were perceived as academic and conservative. In 1893, the association moved into J.F. Willumsen’s purpose-built exhibition building, where it has exhibited annually ever since.

This year, more artists and works than usual have gathered in the building, as Den Frie Udstilling
has invited their colleagues from the sister institution, Wiener Secession, to participate as guest exhibitors. Wiener Secession was founded a few years after Den Frie Udstilling, in 1897, by a group of artists around Gustav Klimt who had broken away from the conservative Künstlerhaus and shortly after established the renowned Secession Building designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich.

This year’s exhibition “Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026 brings together 45 artists from Den Frie Udstilling in dialogue with 125 Austrian colleagues from Wiener Secession in an energetic display that highlights the potential of collective formats and collegial exchange.

“Vienna–Copenhagen” Den Frie Udstilling 2026 is on view till 07.06.26.

Courtesy of DR Archive / Dansk Kulturarv

The video emerges from Den Frie’s ongoing archival research project, developed with PhD Pernille Zidore Nygaard and supported by Ny Carlsbergfondets ‘Kilder til Dansk Kunsthistorie’, exploring the histories and artistic networks that have shaped Den Frie over time.

Adresse

Oslo Plads 1, København Ø
Copenhagen
2100

Hvad er åbningstiderne?

Tirsdag	12:00 - 18:00
Onsdag	12:00 - 18:00
Torsdag	12:00 - 21:00
Fredag	12:00 - 18:00
Lørdag	12:00 - 18:00
Søndag	12:00 - 18:00

Telefon

+4533122803

Internet side

http://www.denfrie.dk/

Underretninger

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Type

Museum for moderne kunst