2019 Catalogue Archive

In a career that spans two decades, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have created a body of work that incorporates, and often critiques, virtually every artistic genre. The context of a work of art – and the social, political, and historical power structures that underlie it – is often the subject matter of their work, perhaps seen most famously in their sculpture Prada Marfa. Here, this small marble sculpture is a miniature version of their public sculpture Han, installed in the harbor in Helsingør, Denmark. Cast in high polish stainless steel, Han is a masculine interpretation of the bronze statue The Little Mermaid by Edvard Eriksen in Copenhagen. By changing the gender and material of a figure poised on a rock and gazing out to sea, the artists question our assumptions about public sculpture and what it has the potential to symbolize. Elmgreen & Dragset’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at numerous museums worldwide and is in a number of public collections. Their work is currently on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Elmgreen & Dragset: Sculptures.