A Monstrous Grace installation view

In A Storm Within, the artist’s second solo exhibition at Wilson Saplana Gallery, Ida Thorhauge presents a series of new large-scale oil paintings that explore womanhood and the presentation of women as they have been depicted through centuries in art history as well as in recent popular culture.


Eight colorful, more than human-height paintings of strong female figures surround us from the walls of the gallery. Even though the paintings unmistakably come from Thorhauge’s hand with quivering, powerful colours and clear brushstrokes, there seems to be something new at stake. Whereas collectivity and care between figures, animals and nature previously has been at the center of Thorhauge’s works, the women now stand alone and stoic in their own defined space within the picture frame. Resting in a presence
that demands our attention. The figures’ bodies are wide, firmly planted on the ground, and the hands are large and expressive with distinct gestures.


Depictions of women have always interested Ida Thorhauge, and throughout her career she has explored the female figure in many different constellations. In her recent museum exhibition, Goddesses at the Museum of Religious Art in Lemvig, Thorhauge explored the mother-child motif, and the show included works which revolved around art history’s preoccupation with the complex relationship between woman and the mythical creature the unicorn. In other paintings, the community between women, across generations, or the community of fate between nature and man, has been explored.


In her new body of work, presented in A Storm Within Ida Thorhauge is not concerned with questions of identity or exploring an inner psychology. Rather, in her works, she examines personas or stereotypes that are projected and depicted in our shared cultural framework of understanding. We see representations of strong women who all stand or almost float in the pictorial space, without environment or much context. The feet are hidden, and the bodies are only hinted at through the expressive strokes of the deep, coloured dresses. It is the gaze, the hands, the choice of colors and a few added figurative elements that tell the story of the women which we might seem to recognize from pictures of Madonnas, Ophelia stories, moods from the Brontë sisters, the Bloomsbury circle, Edvard Munch, Japanese manga tradition, and much more. Still, Ida Thorhauge’s women are unique, recognizable, and distinctive, which we can explore in their intense presence.

A Storm Within, installation view, photo: David Stjernholm 

A Storm Within installation view 

A Storm Within Wilson Saplana Gallery

A Storm Within

Tales of the Horse 

Tales of the Horse focuses on the mythical, magical and healing character of the horse. Layer upon layer, the meaning of the horse unfolds. The artistic practices draw on history and mysticism from Greek mythology, over medieval aesthetics to Nordic folklore. In the exhibition you meet the horse as; a domestic horse, a wild horse, a mythological ghost and a unicorn.

The exhibition showcases both contemporary and older works. Participating artists: Agnes Slott-Møller, Hollie Solvild, Ida Sønder Thorhauge, Kinga Bartis, Nina Sten-Knudsen, Olga Larsen (Museum Ovartaci), Olivia Rode Hvass, Rasmus Myrup, Sonja Strange, Stella Beling, Sven Dalsgaard and Kultivator.

Installation view Tales of the Horse 

A Night among Horses 

Finding Comfort, 2024

Baby of the Unicorn

Trotting towars an Unknown Future

Hearts at Night

Goddesses

03 Ida Thorhauge Gudinder jpg-IGstory photo by Brian Kure

03 Ida Thorhauge Gudinder jpg photo by Brian Kure

04 Ida Thorhauge Gudinder jpg photo by Brian Kure

09 Ida Thorhauge Gudinder jpg photo by Brian Kure

19 Ida Thorhauge Gudinder jpg photo by Brian Kure

Sun and Moon, 2021
Oil on canvas 
400 x 160 cm 

Photo by Brian Kure

20 Ida Thorhauge Gudinder jpg photo by Brian Kure

Installation shot

Floating Motions cover

In her first solo exhibition at Gas 9 Gallery, Ida Sønder Thorhauge (DK) has painted large oil
paintings and paper works, where colors and motifs meet us as equal elements that describe
connectedness, intimacy, and rites of passage. Horses, female figures, and flower meadows
vibrate in expressive brushstrokes, and stories flow freely from the canvas and the paper. No
one has a patent on gender, expression, and behavior when Thorhauge examines the many
positions and transformations that humans and other creatures move through in a life lived.

The works reflect the great fauvist masters and modernism's depictions of monumental female
figures, and they also evoke a confrontation and cultural liberation of figures throughout art
history. Whereas the historical female figure has often sat rigidly on the chair with her gaze down
doing domestic chores, the women in Thorhauge's universe claim their space. They are
androgynous and positioned non-hierarchically. They take comfortable and free bodily positions,
as in the artwork Trying Freedom (2022), and they always hold each other supportively and
caringly. Two rides away under the starry sky on two strong horses - three look towards the
horizon, and the younger front character stares intensely back at the viewer. Although this motif
of horse and rider is archetypal in art history, it takes on a very different meaning in Thorhauge's
artwork Mentor and Mentee (2022). The horses no longer appear as domesticated animals but
rather as equal companions on the journey. In the work Passing the Gate (2022), where two
people walk with their backs away from the viewer, another archetypal motif is confronted as
the figure turns its head and looks back at us. The artwork confronts the classic motif of a
back-turned woman - and questions how art motifs through history shape cultural and social
notions of body, and gender, and which gaze is dominant?

In Floating Motions Thorhauge presents us with a new type of character who shows strength
through vulnerability and care - and who equally addresses us and enjoys their own space. They
are creatures in transformation, have broad shoulders, round bellies, strong limbs, and are in
contact with nature. In her new works, Thorhauge lets go and let the brush run free. The result
is alluring and expressive, where the many layers of color create depth and open up new
readings and possibilities.

Installation view

The Melancholic installation view "Floating Motions"

Floating Motions Gas 9 Gallery

Floating Motions

Fluttering on Every Side

Frieze consisting of fifteen oil paintings on canvas, made specifically for the public poster racks at the artist run exhibition space Sydhavn Station, Cph, DK

On the horizontal frieze in Sydhavn Station's public space hang fifteen paintings of naked bodies in intimate touches that vibrate with intensity and fragility. Ida Sønder Thorhauge's "Fluttering on Every Side" consists of oil paintings on canvas, created specifically for the front hall's row of poster holders. The individual paintings describe limited moments of caress, while the frieze as a whole tells a story of letting go. Each work has both a beginning and an end, and in that sense the frieze can be interpreted cyclically. Both life and death are at stake, which is emphasized by the swirling, white butterflies that hover like a frame around the figures.

installation shot intro

Fluttering on Every Side installation shot angle

Fluttering on Every Side close up

Fluttering on Every Side installation

installation shot

Sydhavn Station "Fluttering on Every Side"

Between eternity and me

Solo exhibition at O - Overgaden 

There is a way into Ida Sønder Thorhauge’s pictorial world: it is neither clear-cut nor dead straight. This new series of works follows a range of androgynous figures in their cycles of life from young to old, and the paintings simultaneously carry tranquil brutality and delicate romance. Flowers, butterflies, and long hair twine themselves through the works as a recognizable prettiness. But something dim, a shapeless sensation of unease, is also constantly present. It exists in the indefinable moods of the figures, in the dissolved landscapes, in the nights, and under its enigmatic moons. Again and again, a hunch of ambiguity lingers: are we looking at women or men, are they fatigued, harmonious, or do they mourn a bit?

Negotiations between strength and fragility are consistent in Thorhauge’s works, a subtle dualism and a love of the equivocal unify in an expression that is as whole as it is underacted and challenging. The paintings look like considerate uncoverings of essential clashes, which are explorative rather than conflict-ridden: encounters between life and death, something light and something dark, the beautiful and the ugly, love and loneliness, the masculine and the feminine, naivety and complexity.

With a confident sincerity Thorhauge ventures into the alphabet of clichés: naked people in nature, strong horses, and skulls, but behind the symbol-heavy pictorial language, fundamental re-thinkings can unveil themselves. Gazes directed at these androgynous bodies seemingly belong to the bodies themselves. The horses are peculiar beings rather than war animals.

In line with feminist thinker Donna Haraway’s theories about speculative fabulation – a notion of history writing imagining alternative worlds where patriarchy, violence, and demarcations of species are eliminated – Ida Sønder Thorhauge uses her open, curious figuration as a tool for analysis. She creates a form of speculative fabulation in the shape of images. Characteristic of fabulation is exactly how it produces a surplus of meaning enabling new interpretations of well-known objects, structures, truths.

installation view Sun and Moon

installation shot A night among horses

installation view 

installation shot always here

Overgaden Between Eternity and Time

Between Eternity and Time

Agnete og Ida

During her long career Agnete Bjerre has received the Eckersberg Medal. She is known for portraying the inner life of man with great sensitivity and a keen interest in the human figure. She demonstrates craftsmanship and represents a time and geography in Danish art history. While Agnete Bjerre's works are abstract and expressive in the classical sense, using earth tones and subdued colors, Ida Sønder Thorhauge's works resample pop-cultural icons in colorful palette. The clichéd is an important driving force in Thorhauge's practice, where she uses art historical references and familiar motifs (such as the rider portrait or the young woman and death) in her study of the images that we humans collectively create.

For this exhibition, Ida Sønder Thorhauge’s position as a contemporary artist is emphasized through her compositions incorporating contemporary items in enigmatic scenarios. Tall stilettos, long nails, umbrellas and spaghetti strap dresses with iconic print of skulls or roses are important elements in the paintings, while the characters themselves are archetypal characters. The paintings with their pop-cultural references are in strong contrast to Agnete Bjerre's more traditional expressionist approach based on the human emotional life.  Ida Sønder Thorhauge's works actualize the exhibition in a contemporary context. The generational meeting investigates common references and role models and expands the existential narratives that the artists share.

Kunstbygningen i Vrå

Agnete Bjerre & Ida Sønder Thorhauge

Building a Path Within This Frame

Building a Path Within This Frame consists of paintings that examine universal imagery and the collective unconscious through a number of archetypal figures: the beautiful young woman, the villain, the horse, the witch and death.

With these characters, a series of clichéd symbols appear: moons, stars, butterflies and roses mixed with modern elements such as umbrellas and stilettos. The figures and symbols explicitly refer to fairy tales and verbal lores, in which archetypal roles are at play, and topics such as identity, existentialism, spirituality and death are explored.

The works are presented in ornamented frames, which are based on the symbolic elements that are present in the paintings. The paintings can, with their references to classic fairytales and pop-cultural superhero stories, be read as an amalgam of the past, present and future. The characters represent different moods and characteristics, together constituting a directory of possible composite narratives. They take on the properties of complex emojis or extended pictograms. By sampling icons and symbols, Thorhauge seeks to negotiate the universal, and create a space for new meanings.

Building a Path Within this Frame installation shot Butterfly Upon the Sky

Building a Path Within This Frame installation shot Two Girls (For Ursula)

Building a Path Within This Frame installation shot Death is Always here

Building a Path Within This Frame installation shot Gurli in Despair

Butterfly Upon the Sky #1

Butterfly Upon the Sky #2

Butterfly Upon the Sky #3

Butterfly Upon the Sky #4

Butterfly Upon the Sky #5

Butterfly Upon the Sky #6

Butterfly Upon the Sky #7

Butterfly Upon the Sky #8

Butterfly Upon the Sky #9

Butterfly Upon the Sky #10

Butterfly Upon the Sky #11

Butterfly Upon the Sky #12

Butterfly Upon the Sky #13

Young Woman and Death

Two Females (For Ursula)

Gurli in Despair

Death is Always With Us

OK Corral "Building a Path Within this Frame"

Building a Path Within this Frame

Not Stopping for Death

The beautiful young woman, the horse, the witch, the villain and death are the main characters of Ida Sønder Thorhauge's series of five figurative paintings on steel, where universal imagery and the collectively unconscious are examined. The archetypal figures refer to fairytales and pop-cultural superhero stories, where tensions between characters unfold. Identity, transformation and existentialism are important themes in the works. The figures are surrounded by a series of cliché-filled symbols: moons, stars, butterflies and roses mixed with modern elements such as umbrellas and stilettos. Studying the cliché-filled and negotiating the universal is a driving force in the works.

Not Stopping for Death installation shot close up

Not Stopping for Death close up

Not Stopping for Death close up witch

Not Stopping for Death installation shot 

Anmeldelse i Politiken

Stronger Than Dirt

The starting point for this duo exhibition was Ida Sønder Thorhauges installation "Later, As Mastery Was Gained" from her graduation exhibition in 2016 and Duda Bebek's paintings from the exhibition "Only Posers Fall in Love", which was shown in Berlin in the summer of 2015. Their diverse portraits of the woman figure and the composition of styles in their works are captivating to the viewer. Both artists work with sculpture and painting, but this exhibition focuses on Bebek's paintings in dialogue with Thorhauges sculptural works. 

- text by Matilde Duus and Niels Elvebakk

Stronger Than Dirt installation view 

Stronger than Dirt, Den Nordiske Ambassade

Stronger than Dirt

Exhibitions