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ABOUT – The artist as a cultural seismograph
Augusta Atla is a visual artist, curator, editor, debater, activist, poet, art writer 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.
Augusta Atla practises institutional critique and activism within the arts itself through essays and newspaper columns that critically deconstruct the patriarchal gaze in art historiography. Augusta Atla 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 – and new works of art that tackles a fresh and new understanding on our history, institutions and sexualities.
Central to her body of work is the idea of the artist’s role in society as a figure existing in intellectual exile in order to maintain an independent and uncompromising discourse. From this position, she defends art as a free zone, protected by the arm’s-length principle and by viewpoint diversity regarding art theory within the art world itself.
Augusta Atla’s artworks explore the role of the artist as an agent, making the artist an intellectual figure and voice in society, with her own life as point of departure. The artist functions like the chorus in Greek theatre, singing of ideas or the tragedies of the age – even before they occur.
Her works also investigate and rethink sexuality, gender and the body from the 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 instead reclaims the bodily as an existential and spiritual creative force.
Augusta opposes social control by emphasising that the zone of art is not a direct extension of party politics or political wings. Nor can an artwork and the artist’s personal values be equated. The artist’s radical artistic freedom must be safeguarded against state intervention as well as against structural self-censorship. She insists on the fundamental principles of secular democracy: 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. Instead, art constitutes a democratic zone for free thought, freedom of research, and critical thinking.
Augusta Atla 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 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 Atla 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 Atla 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 Atla promotes and researches about artworks by women artists and uses the instagram profile @womenpainters as a memory board.
QUOTE:
“I never decided to be an artist; I accepted it instead. Since I was a teenager, my mind has simply and intuitively created work. I see images, colours, forms, creatures, and sensations floating behind my retina — like an extra dimension of sense and sensitivity. For me, writing and making visual work are therefore impossible to separate. This is cross-sensing, and the term for it is synesthesia.
In an art-theoretical context, I wish to visually map and unfold the female gaze and the body as Kabbalah – spiritually divine.
This is in sharp contrast to the traditional “male gaze-beauty” or the porn industry, where the female body is reduced to an object of consumerism.
In an art historical context I research on a new canon of art history where women artists are included. Throughout history, feminist artwork and gender studies have not been allowed to transform us—or our art history—to the extent originally intended. Instead of women being seen as “the other,” merely attempting to disrupt art history through artistic negotiations of our conditions of difference (historical, social, cultural), we are actively reshaping the canon of art.
I am also a writer, public speaker, and debater. This forms an integral part of my artistic practice, as I am a naturally born synaesthetic artist with cross-sensory perceptions—meaning that writing and creating visual work constitute a unified language.
I regard art as a mode of thinking—a site where collective and political tensions are not merely reflected but actively transformed.”
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