Nanna Abell, DK

Nanna Abell’s sculptural practice is often astonishing. Bringing together over-, mis-, or unused objects, Abell builds up assemblages of ready-mades that are filled with contradiction and surprise, changing our perception of the objects or the spatial logic that surrounds them.

Producing sculpture and wall-based works by combining and manipulating materials and images in modes akin to digital alteration, she often works with found material collected through sources like contemporary fashion magazines. By extrapolating such commonplace modes of alteration and then applying it to physical objects in real space, Abell makes humorous reference to the (absent) body and the forces that try to control our perception of self and other. In spite of a highly outspoken physicality, Abell’s works often establish a framework where materiality doesn’t concern only the physical qualities in themselves but also, and foremost, the poetry of human, messy affairs with the physical outside world.

Abell (born 1985, Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Vordingborg, Denmark. Abell received her MFA from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. The artist is represented in the public collections of Copenhagen Municipality, Horsens Kunstmuseum and The New Carlsberg Foundation in Denmark.  In 2014, Abell was awarded a grant of from Nils Wessel Bagges Kunstfond. Besides Denmark, she has exhibited in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, the UK the USA, and Mongolia.