What value does drawing possess in an era when computers can recreate the touch of the human hand and fashion a work of art? How can human creativity compare to the advance of artificial intelligence? Andreas Albrectsen’s work tussles with these dilemmas and exposes the conceptual frictions that lie between the digital and human realms. In his measured, monochrome drawings, Albrectsen harnesses motifs that are often associated with computer systems—the arrows of weather patterns on a meteorological report; the folders of a desktop; the word puzzles of a reCAPTCHA.

 

The reclamation of these images, symbols and words is something of a rebellious act by Albrectsen against the powers of Big Tech. Now returned to the human hand, these motifs are charged with the resonance of having been translated between media. While the expansion of empires was once the demonstration of power, it seems the colonization of data and digital territory is now the marker of influence. We might think of the growing dangers of deepfakes and bots, who feed false information to human users to the detriment of fair elections.

 

In the case of the Recapture series, which return the nonsense fragments of scanned books to the tactile page, Albrectsen draws attention to the relationship between the human user and computer system. While the user performs the required task of deciphering words to prove their humanity, they simultaneously improve the intelligence of the software. Albrectsen’s drawings interrupt this exchange, however, highlighting the shadowy intentions behind a reCAPTCHA—their benefits and their hidden costs. While the result of a reCAPTCHA is to digitize archives and make these accessible to a human audience, they are often carried out blithely without understanding how information will be used. Human knowledge and data are bestowed unknowingly. The absurd poems that appear in Albrectsen’s Recapture works speak to this farcical truth.

 

Albrectsen’s drawings discuss the way in which information is disseminated and processed. Through the lens of the computer screen, human experience is diluted and distilled into something unemotional and detached. The representation of tempests, for example, as a collection of arrows and lines forges a distance between the audience and the true impact of a storm upon human life. Equally, desktop folders are a place in which sensitive information is archived, to be retrieved in the future or forgotten. In Albrectsen’s Untitled (Folders) series, these dossiers are superimposed over alpine ranges and sand dunes which mimic screensaver backgrounds. Albrectsen makes us consider how information is gathered by Big Tech and used at times without our knowledge; how quickly we fashion our digital identities and how long the residue of those profiles lingers on.

 

The decision by Albrectsen to work with paper, charcoal and pencil is weighted in both art historical and quotidian significance—these are the tools of preliminary observations and unconscious outpourings, as well as the humble utensils of everyday life. Indeed, art history and its essential relationship to human creativity is an anchor in Albrectsen’s work. The computer screen is reimagined here as a new kind of vanitas painting—a warning against the transience of life, but also its emptiness when experienced purely online. The distinctly human nature of drawing contrasts with the objectivity of the digital imagery that Albrectsen employs.

 

The migration between the human and digital, conceptual and material is vital to Albrectsen’s practice. In the midst of this oscillation is a discussion of modern life and the longing for connection. His drawings can be seen to facilitate and disrupt such connections, echoing the way in which a computer allows people to speak across continents via high-speed fibre-optic, but also create physical distance between interlocutors. With his own mixed Danish and Brazilian heritage, Albrectsen views this longing for connection as integral, inviting a dialogue between the two sides of his personality, as well as the digital and human.  Alice Godwin

Selected Exhibtions

Solo



2024


Selected Writings

Duo show with Jakob Kolding.

Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup

Opening May 25 



2022


Superbloom

Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro

20.4 - 4.6



2021


Bella

C.C.C, Copenhagen

4.3 - 1.4



2020


Stationary

Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup

30.5 - 17.6



2019



Sleeper

(Andreas Albrectsen & Otavio Schipper)

Specta Gallery Copenhagen

20.09 - 25.10



Escape Shift Return

Charlotte Fogh Gallery, Aarhus.

5.4 - 11.5



2018


Art On Paper Brussels

Bozar - Centre of Fine Arts

05 .09 - 09.09


How To Move Forward?

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

01.06 - 30.06



2016


Code Art Fair

Galleri Tom Christoffersen

26.08 - 28.08



2016


Autostrata

Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup

25.06 - 10.07


Drawing Now Paris (Le Carreau du Temple)

Galleri Tom Christoffersen

22.03 - 25.03



2015


Paramnesia

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

23.10 - 21.11


Amsterdam Drawing (NDSM WERF)

Galleri Tom Christoffersen

17.09 - 20.09


Andreas Albrectsen

Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup

30.07 - 18.08



2013


The End

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

27.09 - 19.10


Copy Paste Copy Past

KHM Gallery, Malmö

07.06 - 22.06



2013


Reel Time

Galleri CC, Malmö

05.04 - 28.04



2011


Silent Icons

Gerhard Hofland, Amsterdam

10.09 - 18.10


The Show

Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam

06.07 - 10.07


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Press, Mentions & Publications



Attention Spans - a Reader

by Garrett Stewart / Bloomsbury Academic Books US

Analysis of 'Untitled (Folders)' in the chapter "Material Transference and Medial Merger. Transmedium: Conceptualism 2.0 and the New Object Art" (2017)"


Forecast Magazine, US

'Atmosphere' issue 11

Fall 2023


Noema Magazine, US

Lessons From A Climate Comeback

Oct. 28, 2021


Tiden kalder på ledelse uden værktøjer

Analysis in news outlet MandagMorgen, 3. Jan 2024


5 hjerter: Et smukt billede på altings forfængelighed 

Review by Peter Michael Hornung, Politiken, 1.Oct 2023


Superbloom

Exhibition text by Aukje Lepoutre Ravn. 2022

Printed in the book Anita Schwartz XXV 1998 - 2023


Materialities of The Weather Forecast

Text by Anne Kølbæk Iversen. 2021


Chasing Rainbows

Exhibition text by Ida Schyum. 2019.


Sleeper. Otavio Schipper & Andreas Albrectsen

Exhibition text by Lotte Møller, 2019.


Forslåede hjerter og andre vibrerende tilstande.

Review and anysis at Kunsten.nu by Trine Rytter Andersen. 2019.


Tidsskriftet Dansk Sociologi no. 3, 2018

Artist presentation by Anders Blok - Published through the Danish Institute of Sociology. The University of Copenhagen.


How To Move Forward?

Text by Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen. 2018 


Paletten Tidsskrift för Konst no.2, 2015

Art and psychoanalysis - essay by Gertrud Sandqvist.


Dagbladet Information, November 6 2015

Skudhullernes lysende pletter - review by Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen.



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Collections



MNBA - Museu Nacional De Belas Artes, Brazil


SMK - The National Gallery of Denmark


Malmö Art Museum, Sweden


Vejle Art Museum, Denmark


The Danish Arts Foundation


The New Carlsberg Foundation


Novo Nordisk Foundation


Soho House, Copenhagen


Region Skåne, Sweden


Collection of Västergötlands regionen, Sweden


Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners


Annie & Otto Johs. Detlefs Collection





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Public placements



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Embassy of Denmark in London, UK

Courtesy: The New Carlsberg Foundation


Center for Practice-based Art Studies (PASS) / University of Copenhagen Courtesy of The Danish Arts Foundation


Skåne University Hospital Campus, SE

Courtesy of Region Skåne


The Court of Justice in Glostrup, DK

Courtesy: The New Carlsberg Foundation








Group 


2026


Upcoming

KUMU  - Estonian Art Museum

12.2 - 28.8



2024


Chart Art Fair ( C.C.C Gallery)

Kunsthal Charlottenborg

28.8 - 1.9


Apollo's Decathlon

Château de Montsoreau - museum of contemporary art, FR

14.6 - 11.8


Landlines / Linhas Fixas

2112, Copenhagen

15.23 - 27.4



2023


Works on Paper

Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup

7.10 - 11.11


Disappearances

Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen

26.8 - 22.10


Anita Schwartz XXV

Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro

10.5 - 29.7


MARKET DEBUT

C.C.C Gallery / Spritmuseum Stockholm

12.5 - 14.5 



2022


Are We There Yet?

Nils Stærk, Copenhagen

30.11 - 28.1.23


On Hearing of an Absence - Curated by Dinos Chatzirafailidis

Haus N, Athens

25.11 - 13.1.2


DRAWING W.O.W

Minuseins, Vienna

7.9 - 1.10


ART RIO

with Galeria Anita Schwartz 

14.9 - 18.9


CHART ART FAIR

(C.C.C) Charlottenborg Kunsthal  

25.8 - 28.8


Dansk Kunst Nu

SMK - National Gallery of Denmark

August -


SP-ARTE 2022

São Paulo Art Fair - Galeria Anita Schwartz 

6.4 - 10.4


Historie Naturelle

With Mia Edelgart -C.C.C, Copenhagen

Opening  17.3 - 14.4



2021


Art Rio

Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro 

08.9 - 12.9


Samling

Arnstedt, Östra Karup, Sweden

17.7 - 05.8  


SP-ARTE 2021 (Online)

São Paulo Art Fair - Galeria Anita Schwartz 

16.6 - 20.6  


Nye Dimensioner

Vejle Kunstmuseum

21.4.21 - 02.03.25


Projeto Verão

Galeria Anita Schwartz 

24.2 -   



2020


Art Rio Online

Galeria Anita Schwartz

14.10 - 18.10  



Time of Change

SPECTA, Copenhagen

01 -12.09  



2019


100

Galleri CC, Malmö

29.11 -22.12  



Edstranska Stiftelsens Stipendiater 2019

Malmö Art Academy

25.10 -24.11  



2018


Memory Foam

Code Art Fair, Copenhagen

Aug. 29 - Sep. 1


End Of The Line

Den nordiske ambassade, Copenhagen

18.01 - 03.02



2017


Art - History - Collection ( A selection of the collection of Reyn van der Lugt)

Parts Project, The Hague

19.11 - 21.01.18


Ex cathedra

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

23.11 - 23.12


Selected Works From The Bech Risvig Collection

Huset for Kunst og Design, Holstebro

20.08 - 01.10


I Would Prefer Not To

meter exhibition space, Copenhagen

19.08 - 09.12



2015


Great Gifts of Chance

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

17.08 - 19.09


These Walls

Galleri Jacob Bjørn, Aarhus

07.08 - 05.07


The Hot Show

Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

09.01 - 21.02


Market Art Fair, Stockholm

Galleri Tom Christoffersen

07.04 - 19.04



2014


Dark Matter

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

19.09 - 11.10


Understrøm - ung nordisk kunst

ARoS - Aarhus kunstmuseum

10.01 - 02.02



2013


Amsterdam Drawing

Gerhard Hofland

19.09 - 22.09


Nordic Drawing

Norrtälje Konsthall, Sweden

02.11 - 08.12


24 Spaces

Malmö Konsthall, Sweden

02.11 - 18.08


Rummets Rymd - Species of Space

Skissernas Museum, Sweden

02.11 - 18.08



2012


Art Rotterdam

Gerhard Hofland

09.02 - 12.02









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Grants



Ebba Elizabeth & Kristian Larsens Foundation, Denmark

Honorary Scholarship 2021 


The Danish Arts Foundation

Work Grant:  2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021,2024

Production Grant: 2013, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024


Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse, Denmark

Work Grant (2018)


Edstranska Foundation Scholarship, Sweden

2019, 2013.



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