Jane Balsgaard

Statement:
"A vibrating line in empty space is capable of filling a room far more than its singular presence would seem to allow. As I construct my sculptures, I seek to let space penetrate them. I had studied sculpture at the Royal Danish Art Academy and at first I was not interested in working with paper. But the possibility of breaking the law of gravity with light, airy works tempted me. 

So I joined a course in paper sculpture at the Pacific Basin School of Textile Art in Berkeley in 1983. I have been working with plant paper ever since, experimenting with expressions in paper in connection with sticks and other finds from nature. 

I keep a large collection of natural materials for use in my work and I have tested most of the plants for papers in my garden. I have discovered the best seaweed comes from the fjord by my summerhouse. Some of the plants I treat in the old arte povera concept, forcing them to grow in another direction in order to fit in the shape of a future sculpture." Jane Balsgaard

Selected collections and exhibition venues:
Museum of Decorative Art, Trondheim, Norway (Four Danish Weavers); Fanø Fine Art Museum, Denmark (Under Distant Skies, solo exhibition); Pori Art Museum, Finland (Transit); Szombathely Art Museum, Hungary (International Biennials of Miniature Textiles); Carillo Gil Museum, Mexico; Textile Museum, Tilburg, the Netherlands; Lunds Konsthal, Sweden; Leopold Hoesch Museum, Germany (International Biennials of Works in Paper); Nagoya, Japan (In Our Hands; awarded a Sincol Prize); North Dakota Museum of Art, Fargo (A Scandinavian Sensibility); Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark (Jane Balsgaard, solo exhibition); Fukui Fine Art Museum, Japan (solo exhibition); Bendheim Gallery, Greenwich Arts Council, Connecticut (From the Ground Up: ART Inspired by Nature); Tacoma Art Museum, Washington; Edsel & Eleanor Ford House Gallery, Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan (Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers); ARoS Arhus Art Museum, Denmark.