Stine Bidstrup is a Danish glass artist and art historian whose practice delves into the ideology of optical phenomena and theories of both chaos and utopia. Working across studios in Denmark and Sweden, Bidstrup’s sculptures are made from mouth-blown colored glass fitted to plaster molds while in a molten state. They emerge from their molds as craggy architectural models and jagged artificial landscapes. Utilizing technology in conjunction with traditional techniques, Bidstrup often produces digital prints on the interiors of her sculptures. She applies scrawled lines, intricate networks, and map-like web patterns in this manner, allowing drawn forms to show through beneath layers of glass.
Bidstrup’s interest in the early twentieth-century utopian teachings of Paul Scheerbart and the architect Bruno Taut’s visionary proposals serves as a foundation for her forms as well as the thrust of her philosophical inquiry. The materiality and vibrant hues of her glass sculptures recall many of Taut’s drawings while materializing the fantastical literary descriptions of floating crystal cities detailed in Scheerbart’s 1914 manifesto Glasarchitektur. These historic meditations on urban planning occurred at the onset of World War I and, as such, were never realized—a fact that provides Bidstrup with ample room to reinterpret their ideas in her series “Architectural Glass Fantasies,” produced over a century later.
Bidstrup has taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art’s School of Design on Bornholm since 2009, and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2015. Together with fellow Copenhagen-based glass artists, she founded the collaborative studio Luftkraft Glass Studio in 2007, and has exhibited nationally and worldwide for the past 15 years. In 2018, Bidstrup joined the exhibition council at the Glass Museum Ebeltoft, and in 2021, she was selected as the curator of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial.
STINE BIDSTRUP
b. 1982, Copenhagen, Denmark
EDUCATION
2019
BA in Art History, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2006
Post-Baccalaureate (honors) in Glass, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2004
BA in Glass, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Design, Bornholm, Denmark
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Focus: Stine Bidstrup, Heller Gallery, New York, NY
Architectural Glass Fantasies, Gallery FUMI, London, UK
2018
Architectural Glass Fantasies: Utopia Materialized, Heller Gallery, New York, NY
2015
To Present What Has Already Past, 7th Floor Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
2013
Knotted Narratives, X-rummet, The HOUSE in Asnæs, Denmark
2012
Award Recipient of 2012, Hempel Glass Museum, Denmark Rupert’s Chaos, BOX Gallery, Lynfabrikken, Aarhus, Denmark
2011
Studies in Search of Order and Chaos, Glass Museum Ebeltoft, Denmark, 2011–2012
2010
New Work, Galleri Jytte Møller, Fredericia, Denmark
2009
When the Earth Reflects,The HOUSE in Asnæs, Denmark
2008
Sense of Reflection, Agallery, Copenhagen, Denmark We Map Ourselves Inside of It, Tesch & Hallberg, Copenhagen, Denmark
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Summer Group Show, HB381, New York, NY, USA
GLAS!!! Danish, Experimental Glass Art, Kunstetagerne Hobro, Hobro, Denmark
Indeterminate Objects, Arts + Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI
2023
Generation Why, Risør Kunstpark, Risør, Norway
Growth + Form: Gallery FUMI at 15, Gallery FUMI, London, United Kingdom
The Salon Art + Design with Gallery FUMI, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
Studio Glass from Denmark, European Museum of Modern Glass, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Germany
FOG Design+Art with Hostler Burrows, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
2022
The Future is Present, Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Homo Faber, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, San Giorgio Maggiore Island, Venice, Italy
Matter at Hand, Hostler Burrows, Los Angeles, CA
New Glass Now, Toyama Glass Art Museum, Toyama, Japan
Structures from a Molten World, The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
Autonomous Zones, Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA
Autonomous Zones, BWA Wroclaw Galleries of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw, Poland
Detox—Clean it up!, Östergötlands Museum, Linköking, Sweden
Handmade, Gallery FUMI, London, United Kingdom
2021
Curator of the 8th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial, Kai Art Centre, Tallinn, Estonia
Melting Point, Heller Gallery, New York, NY & Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA
Matter at Hand, Hostler Burrows, New York, NY
Homo Faber, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, San Giorgio Maggiore Island,Venice, Italy
Mindcraft Project 2021,Virtual platform, Copenhagen, Denmark
Passage at The Byre, Bullseye Projects, Latheronwheel, Scotland
New Glass Now,The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,Washington, DC
The Biennale for Craft and Design, Museum Koldinghus, Kolding, Denmark
A Vase Is a Vase is a Vase, Hempel Glass Museum, Nykøbing Sjælland, Denmark
Glass Art—Art in Glass, Galleri Montan, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020
It’s Good To Be Home, Gallery FUMI, London, UK
The Spring Exhibition, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
Opening Exhibition, Holmegaard Glass Factory, Næstved, Denmark
The Palace,The Glass Factory, Boda, Sweden Gallery FUMI for Sotheby’s Preferred,
Sotheby’s Preferred Members Room, London, UK
Detox—Clean it up!, Rejmyre Art Lab Residency Exhibition, Rejmyre, Sweden
Intersect Aspen 2020 with Heller Gallery, New York, NY, virtual viewing room
Intersect Chicago 2020 with Heller Gallery, virtual viewing room
2019
New Glass Now, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
47th Intl. Glass Invitational Award Exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI
Now & Then: Moments in Glass History,Toledo Museum of Art,Toledo, OH
SOFA Chicago with Heller Gallery, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
BRAFA Art Fair with Clara Scremini Gallery, Royal Depot, Brussels, Belgium
Art Market San Francisco with Heller Gallery, San Francisco, CA
13th Intl. Glass Symposium Novy Bor, Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
2018
SOFA Chicago with Heller Gallery, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
The Salon Art + Design with Heller Gallery, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
Scandinavian Glass—Starting All Over, Glass Museum Ebeltoft, Denmark
New Scandinavian Glass, Vessel Gallery, London, UK
Art Palm Springs with Heller Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
Show Up, RØM Exhibition Space, Copenhagen, Denmark
Pop-up exhibition at the National Workshops for Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
AIR in S12—A Retrospective, S12 Gallery and Studio, Bergen, Norway
2017
SOFA Chicago with Heller Gallery, Chicago, IL
Scandinavian Glass—Starting All Over, The Glass Factory, Boda, Sweden & The Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimaki, Finland
Glass Weekend with Heller Gallery, Wheaton Arts Center, Millville, NJ
Mapping Denmark II: Luftkraft, Grønbechs Gård, Denmark
Summertime ’17, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
2016
Great Danes—Danish Glass from Modern Factory Design to Contemporary Art,
Glazenhuis Flemish Center for Contemporary Glass Art, Lommel, Belgium
Europa grenze(n)loos glas, Glasrijk Tubbergen 2016, Holland
FUNN, S12 Gallery, Bergen, Norway
Mapping Denmark II: Luftkraft, Glass Museum Ebeltoft, Denmark
2015
The Process—The International Glass Prize 2015, Glass Museum Glazenhuis, Lommel, Belgium
The Soul and the Pawnshop, Sediment Gallery, Richmond, VA
Danish Glass '15, Glass Museum Ebeltoft, Denmark
European Glass Experience, Museo del Vetro, Murano, Venice, Italy
Pop-up exhibition, Studio 0601-0603, Copenhagen, Denmark
COLLECTIONS
Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison,WI
The Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimaki, Finland
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Glasmuseum Alter Hof Herding, Ernsting Stiftung, Coesfeld, Germany
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark
Museum of American Glass, Millville, NJ
Hempel Glass Museum, Nykøbing Sjælland, Denmark
The Art Association of August 14th, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Art Association of The Swedish Handelsbank, Stockholm, Sweden
SELECTED GRANTS AND AWARDS
2021
Inga & Eivind Kold Christensen’s Honorary Award
2018
Four x SOFA Special Merit Awards, Chicago, USA
2012
Hempel Glass Prize 2012, Denmark
2010
The Danish Arts and Crafts Award of 1879, Denmark
2007
The Danish Art Foundation Honorarium, Denmark
2005
Rhode Island School of Design Fellowship, USA
Talente Prize for Design, Germany
