A- Malte Klagenberg
Malte Klagenberg (1989), Danish visual artist whose artistic practice spans a number of different disciplines, ranging from drawing, painting and printmaking to sculpture and installations. Throughout the last 10 years, printmaking has been a main component of Malte’s artistic work. He has worked with everything from drypoint etchings to linoleum / woodcuts, screen printing, riso print, off set print, cyanotopy and photogravure. Klagenberg is educated at the Royal Konsthögskolan in Stockholm and the Jutland Art Academy, where he graduated in 2013. He has also served on the board of Danish Printmaking Association. In 2020 he was nominated for the Norwegian queen’s printmaking award QUEEN SONJA PRINT AWARD.
Klagenberg has a large number of exhibitions behind him, both in Denmark and abroad. Here among others can be mentioned the exhibitions “Nature Go Home” in Chicago (USA), “Searching for the Golden Fox”, in Reykjavik, (ICE), “Tegneland” in Silkeborg, (DK) “Size Experiments” in Bolonga (IT) and “Artists’ Autumn Exhibition” in Copenhagen (DK)
In recent years, Klagenberg has worked with the field of tension between country, suburb and city, as well as nature vs. culture. He has often worked with small locally rooted stories in relation to larger themes. He composes images with an inherent conflict, where familiar elements are put together in new ways, thus forming new connections between small everyday life and the big world. Through his artistic work, he creates relatable works that invite reflection and dialogue with the recipient.
His interest in the conflict between the province vs. the metropolises started with a journey of just over two years, where he lived in a car, and traveled through Europe. Along the way, he made drypoint etchings on a home-built portable printing press. With motifs from the rural areas and the everyday situationsareas that don’t usually adorn the front of the glittering tourist postcards. This initially led to the exhibition and publication “Postcard From Europe”. With this project, he thus investigated the ultimate freedom, the balance of power between country and city and Europe’s more or less open borders.
In 2022, Malte Klagenberg had his latest solo exhibition “Fragmenter Af Forstaden”. An exhibition based in Copenhagen’s suburban environments. The suburb is a difficult size to define, with a very diverse population composition. However, not diversely mixed as in the city, but rather divided into monocultural enclaves. Divided by boundaries built by prejudice, fear of the unknown and remnants of old class structures. With this exhibition, he explores these themes.
Traveling has until now filled much of Malte’s artistic work. Whether it has been out in the big world or visiting foreign environments in Denmark. But now the time seems ripe to turn the gaze inward and take a more introspective journey. He has therefore begun a series of works that investigates themes such as identity, memory and the man’s role in society ano 2023. Based on the copper printing plates, Klagenberg has developed a technique where he creates new work by both engraving and oxidizing different metals.