Egeværk is a design studio based in Elsinore, Denmark, established by cabinetmakers Mette Bentzen and Lasse Kristensen. Trained at the rigorous Danish joinery PP Møbler, Bentzen and Kristensen develop hand-carved furniture inspired by the natural forms and muted tones of the Scandinavian landscape. Many of their designs appear frozen in moments of flux, drift, and erosion, embracing the fluidity and incremental transformation of the tides, the strata of slow-melting ice made visible in a disintegrating glacier, the gradual buildup of lime deposits that form stalagmites, or the undulating motion of marine life.
Whether producing a side table, stool, console, or other object, Egeværk’s designs offer a thoughtful negotiation with their materials of choice. The grain of a white Danish ash or a darker wengé wood might call for a delicate metal inlay while the vertical atrium of a home might suggest water droplets dripping from the natural rivulets of a leaf’s centerline. Their FLUID Easy Chair, based on observations of jellyfish, encases thousands of tiny air bubbles in hand-cast and carefully tinted resin. Enveloping the sitter in a translucent casement like a gossamer shell from outer space, the chair sparks thoughts of the enigmatic non-human species which exist alongside our own.
Egeværk’s måne series of delicately carved moons summon visions of the palely-lit twilight of deep winter in the Nordic region. Embodying the waxing-waning edge of the moon’s cycle through bare wood and black-stained panels of Danish ash illuminated by internal LEDs, each sculpture bears the name of one of dozens of planetary moons across the solar system. As with much of Egeværk’s furniture, the sculptures’ elegant finish brings out the nuanced grain of the wood, which shares something of the illusory contours and shadowy concavities visible on our own moon’s surface.
As a duo, Bentzen and Kristensen have been awarded the Carpentry Prize, Danish Design Awards (Best in Arts & Crafts), the Peter, Ingrid and Ralph Hernoe Honorary Grant, and other marks of honor. They hold membership in the Danish Crafts & Design Association. Egeværk’s work is in the collections of the Trapholt Museum, Imagine Museum, Lune Rouge Collection, and the collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller. In addition, Kristensen was selected as the winner of the Danish and Nordic championships in cabinetmaking and has represented Denmark in the World Cup in Japan, for which he received the Mærsk Grant and the Poul & Gurli Madsen Grant.
EGEVÆRK (METTE BENTZEN AND LASSE KRISTENSEN)
b. 1978 and 1985, Denmark
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 NOCTURNAL, Galleri Montan, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020 KNARR, Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019 Shapes of Ice, Gjethuset, Frederiksværk, Denmark
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 The Way Of The Sea, Egeværk & Backhaus Brown, Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
2022 FOG Design+Art, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Pop Up Glass + Egeværk, RVNHUS, Galleri Montan, Kolding, Denmark
Artefact – The Contemporary Craft Fair, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Shapes of Colours, Galleri Montan, Copenhagen, Denmark
3 Days of Design, Moltkes Palæ, Copenhagen, Denmark
Design Miami/, Hostler Burrows, Miami, FL
2021 FOG Design+Art, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, San Francisco, CA
London Art Fair, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Collect, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Glasskibe Exhibition: From The Kattegat, Egeværk & Backhaus-Brown, Duncan McClellan
Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL
Artefact: The Contemporary Craft Fair, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Masterpiece London Art Fair, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Signature in Wood, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
PAD London, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Outside In – Natural Materials In Contemporary Art & Design, Sarah Myerscough
Gallery, London, UK
COP26 – The UN Climate Change Conference, Nordic Pavilion, Glasgow, Scotland
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020 FOG Design+Art, San Francisco, CA
Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL
Egeværk & Backhaus Brown, Habatat Galleries, FL
GLASS48 – Annual International Invitational Exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Detroit, MI
Masterpiece London Art Fair, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
The Danish Pavilion, Olympic Games, Tokyo, Japan (cancelled due to Covid-19)
Ice Summer, the Danish Ministry of Culture, Elsinore, Denmark
Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair, Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
Late Summer, Galleri Montan, Copenhagen, Denmark
Homo Faber, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy
The Natural Room, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
2019 Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL
Trapholt Collect, Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark
Florida Glass Weekend, Hamson Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL
Collect 2019, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Nøstetangen Norsk Glassmuseum, Hokksund, Norway
PAD Paris, Paris, France
Danish Design Festival, Denmark
GLASS47 – Annual International Invitational Exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Detroit, MI
Design Miami/ Basel, Basel, Switzerland
CHART, Copenhagen, Denmark
Habatat Award Winners Exhibition, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
PAD London, London, UK
SOFA, Chicago, IL
Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, BLOX, Copenhagen, Denmark
2018 Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL
PAD Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
Collect 2018, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
PAD Paris, Paris, France
Holbæk Art Association, Holbæk, Denmark
NOMAD, Villa La Vigie, Monaco
Danish Design Festival, Denmark
2018 FIFA World Cup, Moscow, Russia
Art Aspen, Aspen, CO
Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
Homo Faber, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy
Lake Como Design Festival, Teatro Sociale, Como, Italy
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark
Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Thorvaldsen’s Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
SOFA, Chicago, IL
Salon Art + Design, New York, NY
New Scandinavian Glass, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
COP24 – The UN Climate Change Conference, Nordic Pavilion, Katowice, Poland
2017 DESIGN WERCK, Copenhagen, Denmark
Collect 2017, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
PAD Paris, Paris, France
DESIGN WERCK, Copenhagen, Denmark
Design Miami/ Basel, Basel, Switzerland
EAT ME, Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark
Tresor Contemporary Craft, Basel, Switzerland
SOFA, Chicago, IL
COP23 – The UN Climate Change Conference, Nordic Pavilion, Bonn, Germany
FORM Miami, Miami, FL
2016 Northmodern, Copenhagen, Denmark
Maison du Denmark, Paris, France
Design Miami/ Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Northmodern, Copenhagen, Denmark
CHART, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Danish Pavilion, Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark
Royal Danish Embassy, London, UK
Salon Art + Design, New York, NY
2015 The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Trapholt Museum of Modern Art, Craft and Design, Kolding, Denmark
Chair Collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller
Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
The Lune Rouge Collection, Montreal, Canada
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2021 Honorary Grant – The Peter, Ingrid and Ralph Hernoe Non-profit Foundation
2020 Danish Design Award – Best Arts & Craft, Denmark
2019 The Carpentry Award, Denmark
2019 Collectors’ Choice Award, United States
MEMBERSHIPS
Members of Danish Crafts & Design Association
