KRISTINE MANDSBERG

COLOUR + MATERIALS + PATTERN + SURFACE 

SOLO exhibition at Gallery Robertson Arès, Montreal.

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Kristine Mandsberg makes her Canadian debut with BLØD // SOFT [‘bløð’], a solo exhibition that brings together three interrelated series: Please touch, Dots, and SKIN. Working at the intersection of sculpture, textile, and design, the Danish artist explores the profound emotional and physical dimensions of touch. Her wall-mounted forms are not only visually engaging but materially inviting, encouraging viewers to move beyond the act of looking toward a more intimate, embodied encounter with the work. Through softness, curvature, and surface, Mandsberg evokes gestures of closeness (embracing, resting, holding) that resonate with universal human experience. The artist’s use of vibrant flocked textures and pliable, fleshy materials activates a unique sensory response. In Please touch, she questions the traditional gallery etiquette that forbids contact, instead proposing tactility as a legitimate mode of understanding. The playful spheres of Dots and the layered, skin-like surfaces of SKIN further complicate the relationship between object and body, comfort and discomfort, interior and exterior. With each piece, Mandsberg gently challenges the boundaries we place between ourselves, others, and our environment. BLØD // SOFT positions softness not as weakness, but as a responsive force — one that invites reflection on how we connect, protect, and open ourselves to the world. In Mandsberg’s practice, the aesthetic is inseparable from the affective: the artwork becomes a site of potential intimacy, where viewers are invited to engage not only with form and colour, but with their own capacity for empathy and touch. In a time marked by distance and disconnection, her work offers a tender, tactile counterpoint. A call to soften, to feel, and to draw near.

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Text by  Rachel Vincent-Clarke, Director of Galerie Robertson Arès

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June, 2025