Jens Haaning Danish , b. 1965

Jens Haaning works conceptually, i.e. with the idea rather than the concrete work as a point of focus. In practice, he challenges existing structures and exposes their inherent power relations. His works evoke new ideas about Western culture and its current mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, for example in relation to migration, nationalism, language and power. The works show a distinct political commitment that invites debate. Haaning has a central place in Danish as well as international contemporary art.

Jens Haaning is a graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and has an extensive artistic practice behind him with solo exhibitions at e.g. Wiener Secession, Vienna, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Faurschou Foundation, and Den Frie in Copenhagen, just as he has participated in group exhibitions all over the world at e.g. Documenta XI, Kassel, Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, and MoMa PS1, New York, and at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Kunstforeningen Gl Strand, and Kunsthal Aarhus m.fl. in Denmark. His works are represented in collections such as SMK, ARoS, the Museum of Contemporary Art, KØS and the National Museum in Oslo. In 2007 he received the Eckersberg Medal and in 2020 the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Scholarship honorary award.