CHINA 2024 - ART IN SOCIAL SPACE
Nordic Contemporary Art Center, Xiamen China 30.03 - 30.05.2024

THE LION - CONNECTION BETWEEN CHINA AND DENMARK
I work with social spaces in developing my ideas for holistic solutions of sculpture in collaboration with architecture and surroundings in public spaces. The ideas always start with sketches and drawings. Normally, I mainly work in granite - some very time-consuming and lengthy processes. For the exhibition in Xiamen, I focus on large-format drawings, as expressions in themselves. I delve into volume and try to create tension in a single stroke. I am in the process of creating drawings that develop in a cohesive movement. The themes are open, but as in music, I am interested in setting tones rather than providing a closed story.
I work with animalistic creatures. - With states. In hindsight, I can see that it's actually about the existential. The lion has fascinated me for years as a metaphor. The lion represents the forces of chaos, but also the constructive forces. In China, this creature also holds a significant place in people's consciousness, with many symbolic properties. Something we have taken up in our culture, also in our religion - where the Romanesque stonemasons and their narratives have always fascinated me. They also used the animal - not as an anatomical account, but as a narrative, including the lion in countless variations. The connection between China and Denmark, through the shared human metaphors, is something I will work with in my part of the exhibition in Xiamen.

Nordic Contemporary Art Center, Xiamen Kina - ART IN SOCIAL SPACE

Claus Ørntoft, along with 11 other Scandinavian artists, has been invited to participate in the exhibition "Art in the Social Space," curated by artist Tine Hecht-Pedersen and Dr. Phil Else Marie Bukdahl in collaboration with Lan Lan, curator of the Nordic Contemporary Art Center. The exhibition is a cultural event aimed at promoting the exchange between Nordic and Chinese culture and art.nd art.

The theme for the Danish groups exhibition at The Nordic Center of Contemporary Art in Xiamen, Southern China, on March 31, 2024:

THE EXISTENTIAL, SUSTAINABLE, AND SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VISUAL ARTS

Art is always the result of new confrontations with reality and a striving to capture new insights into both the inner and outer worlds. Artists open up a new experiential space that contains markers towards new meaningful orientations, as well as revelations of false values. However, the visual artist also creates an independent experiential space, different from what poetry produces. This is because the visual language of artists is more intense and perceptible than even the poet’slanguage. Through the artistic interpretation, the seen is experienced as something current, expressive, and present, generating new and unexpected ideas that are both larger and different from those we know from our everyday reality. Art also has an interdisciplinary aspect because it often contains visual dialogues with science and poetry and often -in a concrete and present way -reveals new perspectives in them. Finally, over the past five decades, artists have increasingly emphasized that viewers -both children and adults -can be actively drawn into the artistic universe and stimulated to uncover new orientations, create new connections to the people around them, and discover new social and ethical obligations. Art operates in diverse ways in both cultural and social spaces.

Else Marie Bukdahl, Dr. Phil, Art Historian, and Former Rector of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

CHINESE TV XMTV.cn TV report from the exhibition opening

ONLINE CHINESE NEWSPAPER online newspaper about the exhibition

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS IN SELECTION

VRAA EXHIBITION 2022

Claus Ørntoft deltager med:

Å-væsen

Jeg tror på den direkte fortælling, hvor jeg ofte bruger dyret som katalysator. I mine arbejder er jeg optaget af sindbilledet og går ikke efter hovedet, men efter Solar Plexus. Min ambition er at ramme beskueren før vedkommende når at få paraderne op.
Jeg tror på at man i det før-sproglige punkt, er i et almenmenneskelig rum, hvor vi alle eksistensielt er i samme båd.

Bronzeskulpturen er forarbejde til en skulptur der er tænkt ind i en helhedsbearbejdning af Øster Å i Aalborg. Ude i åen vil et stort skulpturelt væsen stå ind i sig selv - direkte på bunden og op imod strømmen. I min tanke bliver den sin egen mytologi og skal holde hele kompositionen i en ulmende energi.

”Å-væsen” - 2021 - Bronze - L 25cm x H 15,5cm x B 14cm

CORNER EXHIBITION, SOPHIENHOLM, DK 18.03 - 18.04 2022

Claus Ørntoft deltager i udstillingen

CORNER 90 ÅR. HJØRNELANDSKABET 18. MARTS - 18. APRIL 2022

SOPHIENHOLM, Nybrovej 401, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby

Officiel åbning 18/3 kl. 14.00
Udstillingen er åben tirsdag-fredag kl. 11-20, lørdag-søndag 11-17

WWW.CORNER.DK - WWW.SOPHIENHOLM.DK

ANIMALS - KUNSTBYGNINGEN VRÅ, DK 04.09 - 14.11 2021

UDDENSKULPTUR 2020 - HUNNEBOSTRAND, SWEDEN

27. JUNE - 30. SEPTEMBER 2020

www.skulpturparkhunnebostrand.se

CLAUS ØRNTOFT PARTICIPATES WITH THE WORKS:

MOON ANIMAL
Courtesy of Brønderslev Gymnasium

TWO BEASTS
Courtesy of Aabenraa Municipality

LION FOR HOSPICE
Courtesy of Hospice Djursland

PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION ON 27TH JUNE

Photo: Jacub Ivancik

From the 4. April til 4. june 2018, The exhibition "Two Stations" Nordic Contemporary Art Exhibition in Xiamen, China. Claus Ørntoft will at this exhibition show sketches in two – or three dimensions; which are the starting point for his public commissions.

Download the program for the exhibition

Two stations

THREE LIONS AND NINE HEARTS, PROCESS

Skagen Odden Nature Center, 13. July - 29. August 2014

THE QUEEN'S LIONS, VRÅ ART GALLERY

26. May - 28. July 2013, The exhibition shows the working process from the initial sketches on paper and in clay to the impressive 1:1 models

PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING

DOWNLOAD

Åbningstale

af Lars Juel Thiis

Poster for the exhibition

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THE QUEEN'S LION'S, AARHUS TOWN HALL

17. January til 2. February. The exhibition shows the working process from the initial sketches on paper and in clay to the impressive 1:1 models

THREE LIONS AND NINE HEARTS, THE AMALIENBORG MUSEUM

3. November 2012 - 1. January 2013. The lions were a gift that the Queen requested for her birthday and were unveiled in Marselisborg Palace park on 26 October 2012. The exhibition shows the working process from the initial sketches on paper and in clay to the impressive 1:1 models. The 26 lithographic sketches of the work and printed at The Print Workshop in Hjørring will also be on display, together with a book with a granite cover containing the original lithographies that were also presented to the Queen.