Artist Statement – Pontus Kjerrman
For many years I have been working with stoneware sculptures of mythical animals, some of which also have a functional purpose — for example, two lamps carried by acrobatic groups of fantastical stoneware creatures. Inspired by Royal Copenhagen’s bear glaze and other classic stoneware glazes, I work with glazes that I mix and develop myself, drawing among other things on Finn Lynggaard’s glaze formulas from his book on ceramics. I am particularly interested in semi-matt and metallic glazes.
A turning point for me came nearly 30 years ago in the garden of the Rodin Museum in Meudon, where I saw one of The Burghers of Calais executed in glazed stoneware. From a distance it resembled bronze with a naturally mottled verdigris surface, and up close it revealed even richer colour and material depth, giving the sculpture an aura of timelessness. These are the kinds of ideas that guide me when I work with my glazes. I have previously worked with and researched the patination of bronze, and in stoneware glazes the material expression can become even more abundant.
The English author and Oxford literature professor C. S. Lewis writes that humans carry a special responsibility toward animals. In his marvelous stories about the other world of Narnia — tales that have followed me throughout my life since I first heard them read aloud as a child — there are talking animals, centaurs, unicorns, and also ordinary horses and beavers, even talking mice who speak to the children who travel through time and space. The greatest of them all, the lion Aslan, holds an almost divine status. In one of the books there are long dialogues between two talking horses who feel a close kinship with each other. There are also non-talking animals — sometimes one goes hunting for deer or other creatures — but to kill a talking animal would be the greatest crime imaginable.
Lewis speaks of four kinds of love: Storge — affection; Eros — romantic love; Philia — the deep love one may feel for a family member or a very close friend; and the greatest of all, the completely selfless Agape, which Lewis describes as love for one’s fellow human beings, a love that requires no reciprocity. Agape is in fact also the love of God. Without being entirely convinced of God’s existence, these thoughts have followed me throughout my life, and I often wonder whether only talking animals can experience such things. Our dog lifts her head — Are we going for a walk now? — and when I do not respond, she gently lowers her head back onto my foot.
– Pontus Kjerrman, November 2025
CV PONTUS KJERRMAN
Sculptor, Stucco Worker, Associate Professor Emeritus
Born 1954 in Gothenburg, Sweden; lives and works in Denmark since 1979
Memberships and Positions
2004 – Member of the artists’ association CORNER
1999–2002 Board member, Guest Studios Hollufgård
1997–2000 Board member, Charlottenborg Exhibition Building
1993–2000 Board member, Charlottenborg Autumn Exhibition
2022– Member of the Academy Council Jury
2020 – Member of the Royal Danish Academy
1990 – Member of Kunstnersamfundet (The Artists’ Society)
1985–2019 Lecturer at the Sculpture School, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
1981–1984 Apprenticeship as stucco worker
1979–1985 The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Professor Willy Ørskov
1978–1979 Hovedskous Sculpture School, Gothenburg, Sweden
1977–1978 KV’s Art School (sculptor Jan Sten), Gothenburg, Sweden
Selected Curatorial Projects
2004 Reflections in Plaster, The Academy Great Hall, with Jan Zahle and Bjørn Nørgaard
1999 WHITE, Charlottenborg
1989 Sculpture89, Lodsparken, Hvidovre, with Cai Ulrich von Platen
1985 Atlantis2, Fælledparken, with Cai Ulrich von Platen
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 “The Animals’ Feast Table”, Galerie Pi, with Tong Wang
2021 Galerie Pi, Copenhagen
2018 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Gammelgaard, Herlev Art and Culture Center
2017 Rudolph Tegner’s Museum, Dronningmølle
2014 Atrium, Galleri KANT
2014 Vejle Art Museum
2002 “Temple of Life”, Stena Hall, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden
1998 Sophienholm, Lyngby
1997 “The City of Stories”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde
1997 Politiken’s Gallery
1995 Vejen Art Museum
1994 Gallery Art Focus, Hellerup
1993 Køge Sketch Collection
1990 “Project from São Paolo”, Brandts Art Hall, Odense
1984 Tranegården, Gentofte Art Library
1981 Galleri 54, Gothenburg, Sweden
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Galleri Arte, Lild Strand, with Tine Hecht Pedersen
2023 Corner, Gammelgaard, Herlev Art and Culture Center
2019 Gallery 2132, with Tine Hecht-Pedersen and Emil Kjerrman
2018 “The Interplay Between the Local and the Global”, Nordic Contemporary Art Center, Xiamen, China
2015 Sandao Gallery, Xiamen, China
2014 Out of the Darkness, ARoS
2012 Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at European Art Center, Xiamen
2011 Seeing Landscape, Xiamen Art Museum, China
2011 “You and Me”, Lanlan Gallery, Xiamen, with Tine Hecht-Pedersen
2009 Northern European Art Exhibition, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, co-curator with Tong Wang
2009 In the Forest, Lanlan Gallery, Beijing, with Tine Hecht-Pedersen
2006 Corner 2006, “Chinese Flower Pavilion”, Charlottenborg Exhibition Building, Copenhagen
2006 Yalu River Art Museum, Dandong, China
2003 The White Gold, Vejen Art Museum
1999 WHITE, Charlottenborg Exhibition Building, Copenhagen (also curated the exhibition)
1994 SIKSI Project, Gallery Augusta, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland
1993 Pathos, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
1989 Aurora 3, Suomenlinna, Helsinki
1989 Contemporary Art from Jytte and Jarl Borgen’s Collection, Copenhagen Art Society & Silkeborg Art Museum
1989 Borealis 4, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
1989 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, Brazil
1988 Danemark 88 – 17 Danish Artists, Fondation Cartier, Paris
1987 The Time of Sculpture, Sophienholm, Lyngby
1987 Nybrott, Bergen Art Association, Norway
1986 Mad About Art, ARoS (Birte Inge Christensen & John Hunov Collection)
1986 Wheat Grain with Roots, Skovhuset, Værløse
1985 Young Nordic Art, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden
1985 Festival of Fools, Charlottenborg
1984 Young, Kulturhuset, Stockholm
1983 The Hangover of Fantasy, Charlottenborg
1981 Artists’ Autumn Exhibition, Den Frie, Copenhagen
1977 December Salon, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden
Publications by Pontus Kjerrman
2019 Forming and Casting – Stucco and Sculpture Techniques, Royal Academy Publishing
2014 Sculpture Stories, Pontus Kjerrman & Lisbeth Bonde, foreword by Mikkel Bogh
2004 Reflections in Plaster, Pontus Kjerrman, Bjørn Nørgaard & Jan Zahle (eds.)
2003 The White Gold, Pontus Kjerrman & Karen Harsbo
2000 The Art of Sculpture, Herbert Read, edited by Morten Stræde & Pontus Kjerrman
1996 The Royal Danish Academy’s Schools of Visual Art, Bjørn Nørgaard, Pontus Kjerrman & Hans Munk Hansen
1995 Islamic Stucco
1991 Finishing and Patination of Bronze Figures by Poul Holm-Olsen (ed.)
Public Art Commissions
2020–21 Stoneware bench, Havrehed School, Morud, Funen
2019–20 Benches with animal figures for kindergarten, Kviberg Kortedala, Gothenburg
2013 Bench and vase, Ryslinge Municipality
2010 Stoneware and oak bench, Skovhuset, Furesø Municipality
2007 Fountain outside Yalu River Art Museum, Dandong, China
2006 Ceramic and oak bench, Rosenhaven Care Center, Skovlunde
2005 Amor and Psyche, opposite Frederiksberg Station
2004 “The Budding Love Vase” & “The Gossiping Girls’ Vase”, Stenløse High School
2004 Sculptural bench, Borås Hospital, Sweden
2003 Bench for Vejle pedestrian street
2003 Ceramic bench, Tovshøj Kindergarten, Brabrand (Aarhus)
2003 Bench and stucco friezes for Mun-H-Center/Ågrenska
2002 Drinking water fountain, Vejle pedestrian street
2001 Fountain, Vejle pedestrian street
2001 Sculpture for Billund
2000 Bench for Kornmod School, Silkeborg
2000 Aarhus University
1999 Lyngby Library
1999 “Lion’s Head”, Høng
1998 The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen
1996 “The Genius of Høng”, Vilhelm Pedersen’s Square, Høng
1995 “The Satyr, the Elephant and the Young Cat”, Ringsted Municipality
1995 “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep”, Odense pedestrian street
1995 Pavilion of Love, Baldersgården, Copenhagen
1995 Fabulous animal figure in cast stone on brick bench, Løjtegård School, Kastrup
1992–93 “The Image Keeper”, Risø Research Center
1992–93 Fountain and drinking fountain, Køge, station square and pedestrian street
1990–91 Sitting horse and cat on stone, Lorensbergsgården kindergarten, Gothenburg
1989–91 “The Sculptor and the Fairy Tale”, Gustav Johannesen School, Flensburg
1988–89 “Apollo and the Fairy Tale”, Ølstykke Elderly Home
1986 – “Monument Dedicated to a Young Cat”, Museum of Southern Jutland, Tønder
