Bjørn Okholm Skaarup

Hippo Circus Ballerina

2021

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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