Anna Aagaard Jensen

Anna Aagaard Jensen (DK/NL) (b. 1990) is a Danish artist, designer, and educator, currently Head of designLAB at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She graduated cum laude from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2018. Known for her figurative shapes and women-only chairs, she creates objects as alternative representations of societal archetypes, using hyper-feminine, expressive forms evocative of the female body. Through a satirical lens, her work engages with femininity, power, and social norms, revealing the hypocrisy that emerges from the contradictions between what society upholds and how it acts, between what is presented and what is lived.

Education

  • 2012–2015 — Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Design & Conservation, BA in Furniture Design

  • 2016–2018 — Design Academy Eindhoven, Contextual, MA, Cum Laude; Nominated for a Gijs Bakker Award for research

Work

  • 2021–now — Head of designLAB, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam (NL)

  • 2019–2021 — Guest Lecturer, designLAB, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam (NL)

  • 2019/2021/2022 — Guest Lecturer, Krabbesholm Højskole, Skive (DK)

Exhibitions (selected)

2025–2026

  • Flowers, Kers Gallery, group show (NL)

  • Rotterdam Art Fair, Kers Gallery, duo presentation (NL)

2024–2025

  • 'Plant Fever', Ordrupgaard, group show (DK)

  • 'Det Nuttede', Sophienholm Kunsthal, group show (DK)

2023

  • 'Hello Darling, Welcome Home', solo show, Centraal Museum Utrecht (NL) — Curator, Exhibition Design & own work

  • 'I Hit You with a Flower', group show, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (NL)

  • Chart Art Fair, Etage Project, group show, Copenhagen (DK)

  • 'For Women Only', group show, The Van Eesteren Museum, Amsterdam (NL)

  • 'Wild Summer of Art', group show, Brutus Space, Rotterdam (NL)

  • 'Please Be Reckless', Formation Gallery, Copenhagen (DK)

2022

  • 'Aan de Horizon', museum commission, Centraal Museum Utrecht (NL)

  • 'Spring Fling', solo show, Sainte Anne Gallery, Paris (FR)

  • 'Heaven Knows, Flower Grows', group show, Bomma Gallery, Paris (FR)

  • 'Fleurs du Mal', group show, Maison Guerlain, Paris (FR)

  • 'Benediction', group show, Friends Artspace, Arlington (US)

2021

  • 'Taffel', solo show, Etage Projects, Copenhagen (DK)

  • 'The New Figurations', group show, Friedman Benda, New York (US)

  • Art & Activism, Roskilde Festival (DK)

  • Chart Art Fair, Etage Gallery x Dansk Export, group show, Copenhagen (DK)

  • 'It Enters Into What We Become', by Morph.Love, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam (NL)

2020

  • 'Reaching for the Sun', solo show, Functional Art Gallery / Peres Projects, Berlin (DE)

  • 'The World Is Ours', Unique Design (Paris (FR) & Savannah (US), 2021)

  • Collectible Fair, solo presentation, Functional Art, Brussels (BE)

  • 'The Tears of Eros: Moesman, Surrealism and the Sexes', group show, Centraal Museum Utrecht (NL)

  • The (Functional) Art of the Century, Miami Basel, Functional Art Gallery (US)

  • Art Los Angeles Contemporary, solo show, Functional Art Gallery (US)

  • 'We Couldn't Find the Door', by Morph.Love, Fey Arts Villecien (FR)

  • 'Extended Views: From Dusk to Dawn', by Morph.Love, K11 Art Foundation, Guangzhou (CH)

  • 'Dissolving Views', by Morph.Love, Alcova Milano (IT)

  • 'Palace of Play', by Morph.Love, Brussels (BE)

Publications

  • 2024 — De Volkskrant, review of 'Hello Darling, Welcome Home' by Jeroen Junte

  • 2024 — NRC, 'Hello Darling, Welcome Home' column by Joyce Roodnat

  • 2023 — Metropolis M (issue 5), interview by Maia Kennedy

  • 2023 — Design Unlimited, interview by Nilsu Öztürk (T)

  • 2021 — Eurowoman, interview by Annelise Hartmann Eskesen

  • 2021 — Costume, interview by Olivia Nepper Winther

  • 2021 — TheArtGorgeous.com, "This Artist Designed Chairs Only Women Can Use"

  • 2020 — Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, "Hybrid-Hypertension" interview by Felix Burrichter

  • 2020 — dr.dk, article on the "forbidden men's bench" debate

  • 2020 — Politiken, "Danish Artist Censored in China — Bench for Women Was Too Provocative"

  • 2019 — Volkskrant Magazine, interview by Jeroen Junte

  • 2019 — Do It Ourselves (book): A New Mentality in Dutch Design, by Jeroen Junte

  • 2018 — ODDA Magazine (issue 17), interview by Richard Pallardy

  • 2018 — Pin-Up Magazine (issue 27), interview by Alice Bucknell

  • 2018 — De Volkskrant, by Jeroen Junte