About

Augusta Atla is a visual artist, curator, editor, debater, activist, poet, art writer, cultural critic and lecturer. She was educated in London, where she received a BA in Fine Art (Studio Practice) from Goldsmiths College and an MA in History & Theory from the Architectural Association (under Prof. Mark Cousins). In 2005 she worked for Matthew Barney Studio in New York.

Her visual artworks investigate and rethink sexuality, gender and the body from the idea of female gaze. She consciously confronts how sexuality in art has historically been marginalised and politicised by everything from capitalism, materialism, religions and ecclesiastical institutions, and she instead reclaims the bodily as a spiritual creative force.

Central to her body of work is the idea that the artist’s role in society is also to be a public intellectual. A (woman) painter can be both a painter and a writer, and she is by no means the first in history to follow this double path in her work. Augusta opposes social control in the arts and insists on the fundamental principle of inclusion: that everyone has a voice, that all views on art have a place, and that an artwork is not necessarily readable in a 1:1 manner.

Augusta practises institutional critique and activism within the arts itself through essays and newspaper columns that critically deconstruct the patriarchal structures in art history’s archive, canon and its theory. She believes that the canon of art history is open-ended, that is, art theory and its archiving is in urgent need of a total re-arrangement and re-thinking.

Augusta has written columns and articles for Dagbladet Information, Berlingske, Weekendavisen, Jyllands-Posten, Politiken, Kunsten.nu, Magasinet Kunst, CHART’s publication, Kulturmonitor, Fagbladet Billedkunstneren and Børsen Pleasure. In 2021 she was editor of a special issue of Magasinet Kunst on women and gender in art. In April 2022 she interviewed the Minister of Culture on diversity in the arts, which led to the Ministry’s directive on gender-disaggregated data collection in art acquisitions and the introduction of a new equality award. Between 2022-2023 Augusta had a monthly column at Kunsten.nu.

Augusta has been a member of Kunstnersamfundet since 2006. She was elected to the Akademiet in 2024 and served on the board of KKS in 2021. She is currently board member of AICA DK.

She received an Award of Excellence from Goldsmiths in 2006 and the Horsens Art Museum Art Award in 2007. Between 2023 and 2025 she was awarded three honorary grants: the Anne Marie Telmányi, née Carl-Nielsen Foundation grant, the Danish Tennis Foundation Residency, and the Finn Nørgaard Association’s working grant.

Augusta was granted art awards by the Danish Art Council in 2011, 2012, 2024, 2025 and residencies at the National Workshops of Copenhagen in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2022. Atla has also been supported by Danish private arts foundations and Danish institutions and embassies.

Between 2007 and 2016 she undertook an artistic pilgrimage and lived in Venice, Rome, Milan, Athens and Paris. In Athens she founded and ran MAISON d’ART CONTEMPORAIN ATHÈNES.

Augusta has exhibited at Charlottenborg, Brandts, Horsens Kunstmuseum, Fundació Antoni Tàpies and Akademie der Künste. Her works are held in collections including the Danish Arts Foundation, the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) and the NEON Collection.

Augusta gives artist talks and lectures at universities and art institutions, including the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Princeton University, and the Accademia di Belli Arte di Venezia, just to name but a few.

Augusta promotes and researches about artworks by women artists and uses the instagram profile @womenpainters as a memory board.

ARTWORKS:

Over the past two decades, Augusta Atla has exhibited extensively at Danish institutions, including:

Viborg Kunsthal, Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Museet for Samtidskunst, Kunsthal Rønnebæksholm, Sophienholm Kunsthal and Brandts.

Atla’s work has also been exhibited at international institutions:

REMAP4 Contemporary Art Festival, Athens Greece; Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Spain; Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway; Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany; Center for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France; The Danish Institute in Athens, Greece; Tallinna Kunstihoone, Estonia; Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens, Greece.

@ HAS EXHIBITED AT THE GALLERIES:

Alice Folker Gallery (DK), Gallery Specta (DK), David Risley Gallery (DK), Avlskarl Gallery (DK), Format Artspace (DK), CAN Gallery (GR), Charlotte Fogh Gallery (DK), Banja Rathnov Gallery (DK), Change and Partner Gallery (IT), AD Gallery (GR), LMN Gallery (NO).

@ PUBLIC, NATIONAL OR MAJOR PRIVATE ART COLLECTIONS:

The Danish Art Council, Denmark
Horsens Kunstmuseum, Denmark
Randers Kunstmuseum, Denmark
The Danish Parliament, Denmark
Dimitris Daskalopoulou, Greece
Collezione Viafarini, Italy