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Bjørn Okholm SkaarupElephant Magician2022
2022
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Price Upon Request
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Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
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About the Item
Edition of 9
Comes attached to a black steel base.
Bjørn Okholm Skaarup was born in Rudkøbing, Denmark in 1973. From 1994 to 2004, Skaarup was an artist at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, before moving to Florence and receiving a PhD from the European University Institute in 2009. While in Florence, he studied the work of Renaissance sculptors Donatello, Cellini, and Giambologna, learning the vanishing art of large-scale bronze casting. He also wrote and illustrated books on history, archaeology, and anatomy.
In 2012, Skaarup was commissioned by the Koldinghus Museum, Kolding, a former Danish royal residence, to create four large reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Christian IV of Denmark. Skaarup was given his first solo U.S. museum exhibition at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2015. That same year, the Collectivité of St. Barth acquired a suite of ten animal sculptures for public display throughout the island.
In 2017, Skaarup's 15 foot tall monumental sculpture, Hippo Ballerina, was installed in front of Lincoln Center at Dante Park in NYC, in partnership with NYC Parks Art in the Parks program. The artist's now beloved sculpture has been exhibited throughout NYC, next to the iconic Flatiron building, in front of Grand Central Terminal in Pershing Square, and most recently in Stamford, CT in front of the Ferguson Library. Inspired by Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (Petite danseuse de quatorze ans) and the dancing hippos of Walt Disney’s Fantasia, Hippo Ballerina vividly illustrates the artist’s ability to reinterpret subjects and themes found in ancient myths, art history, modern animation, and contemporary popular culture in playful ways that engage the viewer.
In 2020, Skaarup completed a portrait bust of Benjamin Ferencz (1920–2023), the last chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, which was donated to the Nuremberg Palace of Justice on Ferencz’s 100th birthday.
In 2022, the artist created a large scale sculptural installation depicting various members of a traditional circus as animals. Comprised of 33 sculptures, the installation is inspired by the late-nineteenth century circus where costumes, banners, and colors created a neo-baroque symphony of larger-than-life forms and displays. Each sculpture within the installation highlights the spectacle of color and movement celebrated by a menagerie several years in the making. In the artist’s contemporary bestiary, or classical book of animals in bronze, each sculpture presents a whimsical story or allegory to decipher, with sources ranging from ancient fables and art history to music and modern animation.
Bjørn Okholm Skaarup lives and works in New York City. He is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
- Creator:
- Creation Year:2022
- Dimensions:Height: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)Width: 6.5 in (16.51 cm)Depth: 9 in (22.86 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Greenwich, CT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU18114250582
Bjørn Okholm Skaarup
Illustrator and sculptor Bjørn Okholm Skaarup brings vibrant life to his contemporary art through a parade of joyfully imaginative animalistic figures. These creatures are often depicted in anthropomorphic poses, such as a cheetah riding a scooter or a rhino dressed as a harlequin.
Okholm Skaarup was born in 1973 in Rudkøbing, Denmark. In 1994, he began working at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. In 2004, he moved to Florence, Italy, to study the work of the Renaissance masters and learn large-scale bronze casting. He received a PhD in 2009 from the European University Institute.
Now based in New York City, Okholm Skaarup builds on elements of art history in his work, as seen in his numerous renditions of the Hippo Ballerina, which is a whimsical take on Edgar Degas’s The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer with an enthusiastic nod to Disney. Many of his artworks contain a mischievous twist, like his bronze sculpture of a lion with a crown on his head, riding a rocking horse instead of a majestic stallion.
Okholm Skaarup is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and has exhibited his works at many notable venues, including the Koldinghus Museum in Kolding, Denmark, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Four Seasons Hotel in Florence and the Hotel Cipriani in Venice.
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