Majbrit Bartholdy

The paintings of Danish artist Majbrit Bartholdy imbue new realism with quick-witted social awareness. Bartholdy’s carefully detailed and vibrant works on canvas capture both iconic social moments and uncanny pastoral scenes. They marry the tropes of abstraction — geometric shapes, pictures within pictures, or ruptured image surfaces — to the lighthearted language of the snapshot. They also introduce an unexpected surrealism, bringing the impossible into contact with the ordinary. Bartholdy’s motivation as an artist is two-fold. Her images offer viewers innovative, telling glimpses into the realities they know intimately but rarely examine honestly, presenting familiar situations like evenings spent on the couch, wedding photo ops, or languid summer outings. Yet they also provoke dialogue, subtly revealing the social absurdities and injustices that we take for granted.

Self-taught and driven by inspiration, Majbrit Bartholdy runs a thriving practice out of her home studio in Slangerup, Denmark. She has been exhibiting drawings and paintings throughout Denmark since 1982.