BIO

Pernille Ørnsø, born in 1975 in Holstebro, Denmark, where the artist continues to work and reside, is a contemporary artist working in sculpture, installation, and outdoor interventions. Working in ceramics, grogged stoneware clay, and natural elements such as seaweed, seashells, or jute rope. Ørnsø is best known for her organic, minimalist sculptures, marked by smooth, carved, or grooved surfaces, creating objects with an uncanny vitality residing in them, imbued by life, sexuality, and strength. The carved surfaces most often feature traces or lines, as if the sculptural body has been subject to erosion over thousands of years. This recurring element seems to be a witness of time, transformation, and life, reminiscent of fossils, naturalia, or a relic of the earth. By doing so, the Danish artist expresses and practices a longing for nature, to relax, to slow down, to touch, and to be touched, connecting with primitive urges and desires that are all too often forgotten in today’s society, leaving us alienated and in distress. As a result, instead of continuing to destroy our mental health and our planet, her work aims to call us to a halt, to ground, to heal, to deal with personal trauma, and to find solace, hope, strength, and resilience.

Her creative process is marked by utmost personal and genuine forms of expression. Pernille—which translates to “rock” or “stone” and connects the child to the strength and solid foundation of the earth in Danish and Norwegian origins—has always been drawn to nature and stones, collecting them throughout her childhood. Having faced tremendous hardship and sorrow in life, it seems like Ørnsø needed to reconnect with that very strength of the earth to survive, to go from desperation to transformation. Scientific studies have found great empirical evidence concerning the positive psychological effects of mindfulness, which can be found in the creation and experience of art, positioned at the very core of Pernille Ørnsø’s creative activity. To heal, one must slow down, breathe, and feel what’s beneath once more. Aristotle stated, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” but for Pernille Ørnsø, feeling yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

She puts her life energy into her sculptures in the utmost tangible and sincere manner, and vice versa—characteristic of the cycle of nature as the sculptures provide her with life energy to continue. This life energy appears in the form of sexual energy, and from sexual energy emerges new life. There is a certain warmth, tenderness, and softness in her work—despite the solid durable nature of ceramics. The work is imbued with sensuality, the touch of her hands, and its vibration, which is not only visible but also tangible in her work. This interplay, the visible and the tangible, is the result of a tactile, sensory, personal, and intuitive creative process. When Pernille Ørnsø looks at nature, she can feel the natural forms she is perceiving with her eyes in her hands. The peaks of a mountain, the curves of a cloud, the shape of a lake, or the patina of a weathered tree.

For the artist, when slowing down and grounding herself, the visible is perceived as tangible. As a result, she aims to reverse this process by making the tangible visible. Having worked as a professional tantric bodyworker in the past, using both of her hands and intuition to feel the person and body, the artist translates this sensation in clay, feeling the curves of the landscape, perceiving the three-dimensional essence of objects, even from two-dimensional images. This unique sensitivity shapes her approach to sculpture, resulting in abstract objects honoring minimal and organic forms and exploring positive and negative space within the volumes of a sculpture in search of balance and suggesting a sense of movement. The works are created to give the eye a place to rest as an invitation to slow down, merge physicality with emotional depth, and resonate with both the natural world and the human experience.

Pernille Ørnsø studied at the Aarhus Academy of Fine Arts (2021-2022) in Aarhus, Denmark; the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2023) in Yorkshire, the United Kingdom; Kunstskolen Spektrum (2023-2024) in Copenhagen, Denmark; and currently holds a teaching position in Ceramics at FOF Nordvestjylland in Holstebro, Denmark. The Danish artist has exhibited at national venues such as Bjerringbro Kunstforening in Bjerringbro, Kunstforeningen Limfjorden in Struer, Grenen Kunstuseum in Skagen, Kunstforeningen Limfjorden in Lemvig, Mississippi Kunst & Kultur in Thyholm, Kunst & Kultur Nibe in Nibe, and Dronninglund Kunstcenter in Dronninglund, among others. A recent and notable solo exhibition titled Visible Streams (2024) took place at Galleri Umbria in Vinderup, Denmark, after group exhibitions with various national galleries encompassing Galleri Grenen in Skagen, Galleri Kunst I Grønning in Grønning, Kunst 86 in Copenhagen, Galleri Bizzart in Rødding, Galleri Vest in Holstebro, and more. She has participated in national art fairs, including The Art Fair in Aarhus, The Art Fair in Copenhagen, the Christmas Art Fair in Kolding, the Jorn Ceramic Fair in Silkeborg, Viborg Kunstmesse in Viborg, and Nutids Kunst in Idom. Pernille Ørnsø was selected in Tom Jørgenson’s publication “101 Kunstnere 2023/2024.”

Text by Julien Delagrange, 2024
Art historian