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 (Creak), Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019
Shapes of Ice, Gjethuset, Frederiksværk, Denmark
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
The Way of the Sea, Egeværk and Backhaus Brown, Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
2022
Pop Up Glass + Egeværk, RVNHUS & Galleri Montan, Kolding, Denmark
Shapes of Colours, Galleri Montan, Copenhagen, Denmark
Three Days of Design, Moltkes Palæ, Copenhagen, Denmark
Artefact: The Contemporary Craft Fair with Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Design Miami/ with Hostler Burrows, Miami, FL
FOG Design+Art with Sarah Myerscough Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2021
Collect, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
COP26: The UN Climate Change Conference, Nordic Pavilion, Glasgow, Scotland
Glasskibe Exhibition: From the Kattegat, Egeværk & Backhaus-Brown, Duncan McClellan Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL
Outside In: Natural Materials in Contemporary Art and Design, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Signature in Wood, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark
PAD London, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Artefact - The Contemporary Craft Fair, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
FOG Design+Art with Sarah Myerscough Gallery, San Francisco, CA
London Art Fair with Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Masterpiece London Art Fair, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
2020
Egeværk and Backhaus Brown, Habatat Galleries, FL
GLASS48: Annual International Invitational Exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Detroit, MI
Homo Faber, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy
Ice Summer, The Danish Ministry of Culture, Elsinore, Denmark
Late Summer, Galleri Montan, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Natural Room, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL
FOG Design+Art, San Francisco, CA
Masterpiece London Art Fair with Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, UK
Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair with Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
The Danish Pavilion, Olympic Games, Tokyo, Japan (cancelled due to Covid-19)
2019
Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, BLOX, Copenhagen, Denmark
Collect 2019, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Florida Glass Weekend, Hamson Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL
GLASS47: Annual International Invitational Exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Detroit, MI
Habatat Award Winners Exhibition, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
Trapholt Collect, Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark
Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL
Chart, Copenhagen, Denmark
Danish Design Festival, Denmark
Design Miami/ Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Nøstetangen Norsk Glassmuseum, Hokksund, Norway
PAD London, London, UK
PAD Paris, Paris, France
SOFA Chicago, IL
2018
Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Thorvaldsen’s Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Collect 2018, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
COP24: The UN Climate Change Conference, Nordic Pavilion, Katowice, Poland
Homo Faber, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy
Lake Como Design Festival, Teatro Sociale, Como, Italy
New Scandinavian Glass, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Art Aspen, Aspen, CO
Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL
Danish Design Festival, Denmark
FIFA World Cup, Moscow, Russia
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark
Holbæk Art Association, Holbæk, Denmark
NOMAD, Villa La Vigie, Monaco
PAD Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
PAD Paris, Paris, France
Salon Art + Design, New York, NY
SOFA, Chicago, IL
Vetri Gallery, Seattle, WA
2017
Collect 2017, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
COP23: The UN Climate Change Conference, Nordic Pavilion, Bonn, Germany
Eat Me, Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark
Design Miami/ Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Design Werck, Copenhagen, Denmark
FORM Miami, Miami, FL
PAD Paris, Paris, France
SOFA, Chicago, IL
Tresor Contemporary Craft, Basel, Switzerland
2016
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark
Chart, Copenhagen, Denmark
Design Miami/ Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Maison du Denmark, Paris, France
Northmodern, Copenhagen, Denmark
Royal Danish Embassy, London, UK
Salon Art + Design, New York, NY
The Danish Pavilion, Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2015
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Chair Collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller
Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
The Lune Rouge Collection, Montreal, Canada
Trapholt Museum of Modern Art, Craft and Design, Kolding, Denmark
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2021
Honorary Grant, The Peter, Ingrid, and Ralph Hernoe Nonprofit Foundation
2020
Danish Design Award, Best Arts and Craft, Denmark
2019
Collectors’ Choice Award, United States
The Carpentry Award, Denmark
MEMBERSHIPS
Members of Danish Crafts and Design Association
