ARoS has added 17 significant works to its collection in 2025

In 2025, 17 new works by leading Danish and international artists – including Alexander Tovborg, Poul Gernes, Jane Jin Kaisen, and Igshaan Adams – have entered the ARoS collection.

“In 2025, an exceptional range of works by leading Danish and international artists entered the ARoS collection. Each new acquisition strengthens our responsibility as a museum: to build a dynamic, relevant collection that speaks meaningfully to our audiences. These diverse artistic voices broaden the stories we can tell and deepen the encounters we offer visitors today and for generations to come —ensuring that ARoS remains a place where art continually challenges, inspires, and expands our understanding of the world,” says Museum Director Rebecca Matthews.

ARoS’s collection is considered one of the most distinctive in Denmark and the Nordic region, and the museum is at the forefront of collecting and presenting video and installation art. The ARoS collection comprises more than 8,300 works, including key pieces by both Danish and international artists. Among the best-known works are Olafur Eliasson’s Your rainbow panorama (2011) and Ron Mueck’s monumental sculpture Boy (1999).

Spanning 250 years, the collection encompasses the Danish Golden Age, modernism, recent decades, and the contemporary era. Each year, ARoS acquires significant Danish and international works across painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, drawing, video, and installation. A further seventeen works have now been added to the museum’s extensive collection.

“Our most important role as a museum is to create meaningful encounters between the public and our works of art, and each time we expand our collection, we become even better equipped to fulfil that mission,” says Chief Curator Stinna Toft.

“The museum is a living vessel – an organism that listens to and learns from the art and artists we collect. What we take in must be returned to our visitors as new narratives about the past, the present, and possible futures. This year’s acquisitions therefore introduce entirely new voices to a Danish museum context while also expanding the representation of Danish artists already included in the collection,” explains Stinna Toft.

ARoS's acquisitions in 2025: 

• Beatrice (2023) by Alexander Tovborg  
  The work is part of the current exhibition Divine Comedy and is on view at ARoS until 4 January 2026.
  

• Lille pudeskulptur (1981/95) by Poul Gernes
  

• Forarbejder til Schweizerflag (1976) by Poul Gernes
  

• Jaime-Lee, Byron, Dustin, Faroll, Lynette (2024) by Igshaan Adams  
  The work was part of the exhibition Weerhound at ARoS – South African artist Igshaan Adams' first major exhibtion in the Nordic region, which was on view from 18 January 2025 to 10 August 2025.
  

• Weerhoud I (2024) by Igshaan Adams
  

• Weerhoud II (2024) by Igshaan Adams 
  

• Weerhoud III (2024) by Igshaan Adams 
  All three works in the Weerhoud series were also part of Igshaan Adams's aforementioned exhibition of the same title. 
  

• Oat Sissy (Havreskvattet) (2023) by Rasmus Myrup
  

• Forest Executive (Skogsrå) (2023) by Rasmus Myrup
  

• Dream Gradient (Pure Lavender Meets Broken Crimson) (2022) by Ditte Ejlerskov
  

• “Rygefantom” (n.d.) by Ovartaci
  

• Materiale undersøgelser (1960) by Kirsten Justesen
  

• HALMANG (2023) by Jane Jin Kaisen
  

• Se trancó – All this will end in tears (2024) by Ismar Čirkinagić
  

• Particles (2023) by Hanne Nielsen and Birgit Johnsen
  

• The Bricklayer (2023) by Simon Dybbroe Møller
  

• Sex Is Not A Natural Act (2019) by Maja Malou Lyse

The seventeen works newly added to the ARoS collection may be included in future exhibitions and can also be loaned to other museums.

The acquisitions have been made possible with generous support from the New Carlsberg Foundation, the 15 June Foundation, the Beckett Foundation and private donors.

Attached press photos can be downloaded via Dropbox and may be used freely when giving due credit. Please contact ARoS's press and communications department if you would like photos of additional works.

For further information, please contact:
ARoS Press and Communications
presse@aros.dk
+45 61904942