Jeannette Ehlers is a Copenhagen-based artist of Danish and Trinidadian descent whose practice takes shape experimentally across photography, video, installation, sculpture and performance. She graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2006.
Ehlers’ work often makes use of self-representation and image manipulation to bring about decolonial hauntings and disruptions. These manifestations attend to the material and affective afterlives of Denmark’s colonial impact in the Caribbean and participation in the Transatlantic Slave Trade—realities that have all too often been rendered forgettable by dominant history-writing. In the words of author Lesley-Ann Brown, “Ehlers reminds all who participate in or gaze at her work that history is not in the past.”
Ehlers insists on the possibility for empowerment and healing in her art, honouring legacies of resistance in the African diaspora. She merges the historical, the collective and the rebellious with the familial, the bodily and the poetic.
She’s currently a practice-based PhD- fellow at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Copenhagen University (2025-2028)
She has exhibited internationally and was shortlisted to create a national monument to The Windrush Generation at London Waterloo Station 2022 as well as for the decolonial monument in Braunschweig Germany 2022/2023. She is a member of The Lockward Collective who was selected to do The Decolonial Memorial EarthNest in Global Village Berlin in the fall of 2024.
She is the co-creator of the public sculpture project I Am Queen Mary, 2018
Selected Exhibitions:
Prospect 6 in New Orleans/ Denver US, the 15th Havana Biennial, CU* Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk DK* MAAT Lisbon,PT * MIA, Minneapolis, US* MCA, Chicago,US *Centre Pompidou- Metz, FR *Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen,DK * MOCAD, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, US, * AGO, Toronto, Canada * SMK- The Danish National Gallery, Copenhagen, DK ,*Nuuk Art Museum, Greenland *Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen,DK * Berliner Herbstsalon, Berlin , D * Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, NO * Ford Foundation Gallery, NYC,US* LACE, LA,US* SAVVY Contemporary Berlin, D * The Finnish Museum Photography, Helsinki, FI * Canton Gallery, Guangzhou, CN * CareOf, Milan IT * Frost Art Museum, Miami, US * CAMP, Copenhagen, DK * Wallach Art Gallery, NYC,USA * AROS, Aarhus, DK * MOLAA, Los Angeles, USA * The Black Diamond, Copenhagen, DK* International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, UK * 21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, Kentucky, US * Reykjavik Art Museum, IS* Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London,UK * UVP on Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, USA * Brundyn+ gallery, Cape Town SA * Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen,DK * LMAKprojects, NYC,USA * Dak’Art, Dakar, Senegal * Pérez Art Museum Miami, USA * Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Canada * Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin, Germany * Museo Del Barrio, New York, USA *
CV
C.V.
Visual artist
Jeannette Ehlers
Based in Copenhagen, Denmark
2006 MFA from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
2012 - Presenter , Maria Lugones decolonial Summer School, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven,NL
2014-2018 Board member Den Frie Udstillingsbygning
2020–2023 Chair at The Danish Arts Foundation committee for the visual arts
2024-2028 Board member O -Overgaden Contemporary Art Center
2025-2028 Practice based Ph.d. at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts & University of Copenhagen
Solo and duo exhibitions
2025 Even After- 2112 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
2024 We’re Magic. We’re Real (These walls)- performance at PAMM in Miami, US
2024 Crossing Waters: Ripples of Tomorrow, Le Bicolore, Paris, F + Randers Kunstmuseum, DK
2023 Diasporic Frequencies: Sacred Ecopoetics, w/Lydia Östberg Diakité & patricia kaersenhout, Rønnebæksholm, Næstved, DK
2023 Play Mas, Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis, Momenta Biennial, Montreal,CA
2022 We’re Magic. We’re Real (These walls)- performance, at Fisk University for EADJ, Nashville, US
2022 Archives in the Tongue: A Litany of Freedoms, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK
2022 Black Bullets (2012), EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, FI
2022 Every Monument Is A Citizen, two persons exhibition with La Vaughn Belle, Pública, Puerto Rico
2021 Take Root, MOCAD, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, US
2021 Shortlisted for the Windrush Generation Monument at Waterloo Station, London, UK
2019 How Do You Talk About 300 Years in 4 Minutes, The Film Club, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SE
2019 Until the lion, Nuuk Nordisk Kulturfestival Festival / Nuuk Kunstmuseum- Nuuk, GR
2018 Black Bullets, permanent installation at Stockholm School of economics donated by BCG, Stockholm, SE
2018 For Love Alone, 6 hrs performative intervention at KAS/ SMK, CPH, DK
2018 The Invisible Empire: Confronting the Scandinavian Colonial Amnesia, Chez Eva@Galleri Futura,Stockholm SE
2018 I Am Queen Mary, A public sculpture project in collaboration with La Vaughn Belle in front of KAS/SMK, Cph, DK
2017 INTO THE DARK, Performance, Teater Får302, Cph, DK
2016 RAISE, The McKenna Museum of African American Art, New Orleans, US
2015 Because The Spirits. A conversation. ANA, Copenhagen, DK
2015 Whip it good: Spinning from History’s filthy mind, Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London, UK
2015 Black Bullets, at UVP , Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, US
2014 SAY IT LOUD!, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, DK
2014 Black Bullets, Videokunst.ch, Bern,CH
2013 Black Bullets, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, CA
2010 The Invisible Empire, Rohde Contemporary, Copenhagen, DK
2009 ATLANTIC, Århus Art Building, Århus, DK
Selected exhibitions, performances & screenings:
2025 Recast, Copenhagen University Library Fiolstræde, Copenhagen, DK
2025 Plantefeber/ Plant Fever, Den Hirschsprungske Samling, Copenhagen, DK
2025 The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home,Selections from Prospect.6, MCA, Denver, US
2025 Kunstnerkolonien, Nivaagaard Malerisamling, Nivå,,DK
2024 The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home, Prospect 6 triennial, New Orleans, US
2024 Ocean, LOUISIANA, Humlebæk, DK
2024 Black Ancient Futures, MAAT, Lisbon, PT
2024 Shared Horizons, Havana Biennial, CU
2024 14th Bamako Encounters, The African Biennial of Photography, Bamako, ML
2024 Memories, Fotografisk Center, Cph, DK
2024 Fragments of Epic Memory, CMOA, Ohio, US
2024 World in Focus, ARoS, Aarhus,DK
2024 Poly/Graphic/ Poli/ Gráfica 2024,San Juan, PR
2024 Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-Today, MCASD, San Diego,US
2023 Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-Today, ICA, Boston,US
2023 Rencontres d’Arles, Photofestival, Arles, FR
2023 Embodied Journeys, Dansehallerne + Den Frie, Cph, DK
2023 Fragments of Epic Memory, MIA, Minneapolis, US
2022 Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-Today, MCA, Chicago,US
2022 A Gateway To Possible Worlds, Centre Pompidou- Metz, FR
2022 Rock My Soul II- Stockholm, curated by Isaac Julian at Eva Livijn - Olin, Stockholm, SE
2022 Amplify – Stranger in the Village, Autograph ABP, London, UK
2022 Angst, Kunstmuseet, Tønder, DK
2022 Hurting and Healing – Tensta Kunsthal, Stockholm, SE
2022 Marmor/ Marble, Kunsten Aalborg,DK
2021 POET SLASH ARTIST, International public art biennale on display across Denmark, organized by Charlottenborg ,Cph DK
2021 Atlantikumi / In The Atlantic, w. Pia Arke, Jessie Kleemann and Jeannette Ehlers
2021 We are not Myths: Opacity across Difference, Culture Art Society (CAS)+ Art Hub,, Copenhagen, DK
2021 Af-Flux : Biennale Transnationale Noire, Bossale World / OBORO,Montreal, CA
2021 After The Silence. Women and the Art of Crisis, SMK- The Danish National Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
2021 Fragments of Epic Memory, AGO, Toronto, CA (travelling show )
2021 THE EARTHLY OBSERVATORY, New galleries at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, US
2021 This is Not Africa – Unlearn What You Have Learned – ARoS, Aarhus, DK
2020 CARL NIELSEN & ANNE MARIE CARL- NIELSEN’S HONORARY AWARD. DEN FRIE– Copenhagen, DK
2020 Aftershocks, screening program curated by Mai Takawira, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK
2020 Face To face | Thorvaldsen & Portrættet, Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, DK
2020 Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, N
2020 Astrid Holm & Co., Rønnebæksholm, Næstved, DK
2019 Writings of Bodies <<<We Know It from the Inside>>>, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen, DK
2019 Meanwhile in Denmark, Galeie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, F
2019 Dress Up, Speak Up: Regalia and Resistance,21c Museum Hotels, Cincinnati, Ohio,US
2019 DE-HEIMATIZE IT! The 4. Berliner Herbstsalon, Gorki Theater, Berlin,D
2019 FLAG - objekt, ikon, symbol, Randers Kunstmuseum, Randers DK
2019 Radical Love, Ford Foundation Gallery, NYC, US
2019 Take a Seat (performance), Heartland Festival, Egeskov Slot, DK
2019 Death Worlds, Click Festival, Helsingør, DK
2019 Sea and Land, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA, US
2019 Unravelling Collective Forms,LACE, LA,US
2019 The Winds of, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki,FI
2019 dis/locations:Mapping Black Europe, Lemmerman Gallery at New Jersey City University, US
2019 Ecologies of Darkness:Building grounds on shifting sands- Incantations- SAVVY Contemporary Berlin, D
2018 who loves in the world, Canton Gallery,Guangzhou, CN
2018 Cycle INCLUSIVE NATION, Cycle Music and Art Festival, Reykjavik, IS
2018 Decolonizing Appearance, CAMP- Center for Art on Migration Politics, Copenhagen, DK
2018 I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not #14 meets Speisekino Host: Christopher Cozier, Berlin Biennale, D
2018 INTO THE DARK, Performance, Maxim Gorki Theatre, for BEBOP2018, Berlin, D
2018 Marx@200, Space Gallery, Pittsburgh, USA
2018 Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation,21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, Kentucky, US
2018 Tak og i lige måde, Contemporary Art from Denmark, Reykjavik Art Museum, IS
2017 COOL, CALM AND COLLECTED, AROS, Aarhus, DK
2017 THE BLACK PARADE: LET‘S LIBERATE!, Remembering the future,ARTS AND GLOBALIZATION PAVILION´s, GAA Foundation during the opening weeks of La Biennale di Venezia 2017.
2017 Stop Slavery! Workers Museum, CPH, DK
2017 Relational Undercurrents, Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, MOLAA, LA, US Traveling show Frost
Art Museum, Wallach Art Gallery among more
2017 Black Matter, KKT, Copenhagen Art week, CPH, DK
2017 Ink and blood: stories of abolition - International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, UK
2017 Colonial Stories - power and people, Gl. Holtegaard, Holte, DK
2017 Blinde Vinkler / Blind Spots, The National Photo Museum/Black Diamond, Cph, DK
2017 Whip It Good!,Live performance at Royal Cast Collection organised by CAFx & SMK, Cph,DK
2017 Carte Blanche, The French Embassy, Copenhagen, DK
2017 Cover photo for e-flux Journal #79 -Lamin Fofana -Dis/Continuum - https://www.e-flux.com/journal/79/94534/dis-continuum/
2016 UNDER A DIFFERENT SUN Obscured Histories, Female Perspectives, Venice International Performance Art Week, IT
2016 Take 5! A Survey of Race, Identity, Gender and Power in the USVI
2016 Crossing the line, Critical Distance Gallery, Toronto, CA
2016 Phantom, The BWA Gallery of Contemporary Art, Katowice, PL
2016 Vulnerability, Rauma Biennale Balticum, Rauma, FI
2016 Capitalist Melancholia Project, HALLE 14, Leipzig, D
2015 Caribbean Heritage 2015, Black Radical Imagination screening,Brooklyn Museum, NYC, US
2015 FESTIVAL CARIBéEN DE L’IMAGE du Mémorial ACTe, group show,Mémorial ACTe, Guadeloupe,WI
2015 Embodied Spaces, FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam, NL
2015 Stafet, Gammel Strand, Copenhagen,DK
2015 Anyway, the wind blows, Brundyn Gallery, Cape Town, SA
2014 Whip It Good! , Live performance, Royal College of Art, London,UK
2014 Rooted Movements, group show, LMAKprojects, NYC,US
2014 POSSESSION, group show, New Shelter Plan, Copenhagen, DK
2014 BE.BOP2014 ,Spiritual Revolutions and the Scramble for Africa,Berlin + Copenhagen,D+DK
2014 DAK’ART 2014, Biennale of Dakar, SN
2014 CARIBBEAN: Crossroads of the World, group show, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, US
2014 Black Radical Imagination2014, Cooper Union, NYC, US
2013 Steirischer Herbst, screening, Festival of new art, Graz, AT
2013 BE.BOP 2013 DECOLONIZING THE “COLD” WAR,Hackesche HöfeKino,Berlin,D
2012 CARIBBEAN: Crossroads of the World, El Museo del Barrio, Queens Museum & The Studio Museum, NYC,US
2011 ENTER 2011, Young Danish Contemporary Art, Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense,DK
Grants & prizes (selected):
2025 Ny Carlsbergfondets Kunstnerlegat/ honorary grant
2020 CARL NIELSEN & ANNE MARIE CARL- NIELSEN’S HONORARY AWARD
2015 Video art award for Black Bullets, FESTIVAL CARIBéEN DE L’IMAGE du Mémorial ACTe, Guadeloupe, WI
2015 AICA/The Danish Art Critic’s prize for SAY IT LOUD!, DK
2014 Aage og Yelva Nimb's Fond- honorary grant,DK
2014 Sven Hols’ Legat – honorary grant,DK
2011 Kunstnerfonden af 1973 til gavn og støtte for danske malere og billedhuggere, honorary grant, DK
2010 Niels Wessel Bagges honorary grant, DK
2010-13 Det treårige arbejdslegat/ Three Years Working grant - The Danish Arts Foundation, DK
2009-2024 Production grants The Danish Arts Council
Residencies:
2019 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, US
2015 Marble House, Vermont, US
2014 PROGR – Bern, CH
2013 Triangle Arts, New York, US
2012 AIR , Amsterdam, NL
2011 ISCP- New York, US
Selected Panels, Talks and Keynotes:
2025: Lecture at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, DK
2023: Rethink & Reload – Monuments in 21st Century Democracies: Between Iconoclasm and Revival, Spandau Citadel, Berlin, DE (panel)
2023: Out of Scandinavia 2023, Scandinavian Studies, Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota, US (keynote)
2022: Annual Conference, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS), Puerto Rico (keynote)
2022: Moving Monuments: Imperial Aesthetics, Public Memory and Other Unresolved Issues, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen (KUA), DK (talk)
2019: On the Matter of Blackness in Europe: Transnational Perspectives, UCLA, Los Angeles, US (panel)
2019: How to Challenge Scandinavian Colonial Amnesia, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley, US (talk)
2012–2018: BEBOP (Black Europe Body Politics) Annual Seminar, Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam (talk and performance)
Public Art Projects:
2024: EarthNest – as a member of The Lockward Collective – selected to create a Decolonial Monument in Berlin, DE
2023: Shortlisted for National Decolonial Monument, Braunschweig, DE
2021: Shortlisted for National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station, London, UK
2018: I Am Queen Mary, co-founder of the decolonial monument in front of the Royal Cast Collection / SMK, Copenhagen, DK
Selected Collections:
Moderna Museet; SMK (National Gallery of Denmark); The Black Diamond (Royal Danish Library); Malmö Art Museum; 21c Museum Hotels; Gothenburg Museum of Art; Danish Arts Foundation; Stockholm School of Economics; The Saastamoinen Foundation; Ny Carlsberg Foundation; Fuglsang Art Museum.
