The two exhibitions Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe – COLONY SOUND, 2019-2020 and Asger Jorn and Per Kirkeby – JORN / KIRKEBY continue into 2021. The same holds good of the presentation of ARoS’ big expansion project The Next Level & James Turrell – While We Are Waiting.

THIS IS NOT AFRICA – UNLEARN WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED

27 March until 24 October 2021, level 1

March sees the opening of THIS IS NOT AFRICA – UNLEARN WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED, a highly topical exhibition featuring a number of leading contemporary artists. The artists are mostly from the African continent, but there are also some from other countries. The exhibition, comprising about 25 works, presents artworks including a new work for the museum façade, site-specific installations, video works, sculptures, paintings and photos as well as a performance programme.

THIS IS NOT AFRICA – UNLEARN WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED disrupts a conventional and stereotypical western narrative of Africanness. It includes works that in various ways parody, break through, deconstruct or establish new cognitive parameters and forms of expression. By way of exception, ARoS is going to create an art satellite in close collaboration with the ambitious and artistic powerhouse SCCA and Red Clay in Ghana.

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann – Between Worlds

8 May until 12 September 2021, level 5

As from May ARoS presents a comprehensive exhibition with Danish artist Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1818-1881). Jerichau-Baumann represents one of the, sadly, far too few women artists from the 1800s. She was born in Poland and trained at the art academy in Düsseldorf, which broadened her horizons more than those of most of her contemporary Danish artist colleagues. She belongs to the group of Danish artists going by the name of the ‘Europeans’, who were opposed to the ‘national’ artists. The Europeans were often openly inspired by international currents, and Jerichau Baumann’s oscillation between the global and the national lends her voice immense interest while simultaneously making her a counterpoint to the national orientation and the art school of the time.

Sif Itona Westerberg

27 August 2021 until 23 January 2022, ARoS Focus Gallery, level 5

Sif Itona Westerberg’s (b.1985) art, which ARoS will be showing from August in the Focus Gallery, deals with the great shift that has taken place in recent years when human impact on nature has accelerated and climate disaster seems to be lurking on the horizon. Her art lays bare the issues that unfold in an age in which the boundaries between technology, man, and nature seem to be eroded. Sif Itona Westerberg’s works reveal an interest in spirituality and mysticism. They show how modern man has committed hubris by depleting the Earth’s resources; and the realisation of the state of the Earth has catapulted modern man into an existential crisis which Westerberg succeeds in capturing. Her works often reference the sculpted friezes of classical Antiquity, from where she borrows a great deal of her motifs and materials.

About The Collection

Your Rainbow Panorama

Boy

Installation Art

Far From Home

Human Nature

Valkyrie Rán