Michael Elmgreen

* 1961

 

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset form the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset. The artists' lifelike figures and spatial environments have an immediate impact on the viewer. The duo replicates everyday situations, yet infuses them with subtle, underlying humor that invites us to see the familiar in a new light and to question our understanding of “normal.”

Elmgreen & Dragset met in 1994. From 1995 to 2004, they were also a couple, and they continue to work together as an artistic duo to this day. Neither has a formal art education, and they began their collaborative practice in the field of performance art. Today, they are particularly known for their sculptures and installations.

The artists have realized numerous exhibitions addressing a wide range of themes. These include projects engaging with consumer culture, such as the iconic Prada Marfa installation in the Texas desert (2005), works exploring art collecting, such as The Collectors for the 53rd Venice Biennial (2009), and investigations into the status of the body in a post-industrial age, most recently in Useless Bodies? for Fondazione Prada (2022).

A recurring theme in their work is the intersection of public institutions and identity. Queer life and culture are explicit subjects, while queerness simultaneously serves as a strategy to question societal norms.