Maria Lenskjold & Peter Larsen | City Occultism

Opening: December 1st 2023 from 5pm until 8pm

Beers from Nørrebrew and magical wobbly puddings will be served at the opening - hope to see you!

Bricks Gallery is proud to present City Occultism, an exhibition with new joint ceramic works by Peter Larsen and Maria Lenskjold.

Few people are under the impression that witchcraft and demonic rituals thrive in a ground floor apartment in the city. But Peter Larsen and Maria Lenskjold have set out to prove the opposite in their playful and imaginative exploration of the urbanite’s ambivalent relationship to the occult. In City Occultism they present a plethora of new collaborative ceramic works that are at once:

• inviting, with attractive shapes, expressive colors and seductive symbolism, and
• inaccessible, to the uninitiated, with a deeper meaning that cannot be immediately grasped by the intellect. 

In the exhibition you will find countless magical remedies: a pointed sorcerer’s hat, flacons with extracts from mugwort, witch hazel and wormwood, fabulous animals – such as the 11-eyed cat, a two-headed snake and a rare unicorn species that only lives on the island Møn, steaming potions, wands, a shooting star trapped in a box, troll mirrors, poisonous mushrooms and a flower pot hider meant for ritualistic purposes. 

Magic is in the air, and you will be tempted to tinker, knowing that at best you will end up like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Goethe’s poem. The exhibition is a loving, artistic treatment of the city dwellers newfound and escapist interest in the occult, which neither makes fun of the longing for magical powers nor becomes superstitious. Why quit while you are ahead? 

City Occultism consists of ceramic works created in close collaboration between the two artists. The exhibition’s works are an expression of close integration of the two artists’ visual language.

Text by Andreas Hjort Bundgaard

Peter Larsen (DK, b. 1984) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. In his artistic practice, he embraces a number of diverse forms of expression such as painting, drawing and ceramics, as well as classical printing techniques; etching, screen printing and lithography. His works address both surrealist themes and a more modernist and playful exploration. He lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Maria Lenskjold (DK, b. 1981) was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 2011. Maria works with sculpture – in the broadest sense of the word – and creates both individual works and larger installations. In addition to her preferred medium, ceramics, she also works graphically and with textiles and storytelling. She lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark and is, among other things, co-founder of the artist-run ceramic workshop Keramiklubben.