The world of art was a sanctuary and a vital necessity. In the fall of 2026, we tell the gripping story of Ovartaci, who fought with heart and soul for respect for art – and from the world around her.
Experience Ovartaci’s (1894–1985) enigmatic narratives, created in a spellbinding, surrealist expression.
Her imaginative universe is inhabited by curious, demon-like creatures and women in high heels who radiate vitality, longing, and togetherness.
Over six decades, Ovartaci created a remarkable body of work under exceptional circumstances – one that has earned a unique place in Danish art history. Her artistic practice also contributes to international art history, as the exhibition traces connections to the Cobra movement and the art brut genre, highlighting themes of tolerance, transgender identity, and the transformative potential of art.
With intensity and intimacy, the exhibition raises urgent questions about humanity and helplessness, mental well-being, and the formation of identity. At the core of Ovartaci’s life’s work lies a longing to be free, loved, and accepted.
Unconditionally, and not despite, but because of who one is.
Ovartaci was a colorful and complex person – self‑taught artist, poet, and engineer. An adventurer and a dreamer. Intellectual, psychiatric patient, and trained house painter. She was a winter bather, a yogi, and a lover of nature. She believed in Buddhism, animism, and reincarnation, drawing inspiration from the many past lives she felt she had lived.
Her life’s work is inseparable from her own radical life story, which also includes a nervous breakdown in Argentina, a self-performed gender amputation, and an unfulfilled dream of living life as a woman. Altogether, she lived for 56 years as a patient at psychiatric hospitals, primarily in Risskov, north of Aarhus.
The exhibition was first shown at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam in the spring of 2023 under the title Becoming Ovartaci.
In collaboration with Kunstmuseum Brandts and Museum Ovartaci in Aarhus, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art now presents the exhibition to a Danish audience.
The exhibition is accompanied by a research‑based catalogue published in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Brandts.
