Jeppe Hein

Born 1974, Copenhagen, Denmark. Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark and Berlin, Germany

It’s every gallery-goer’s worst nightmare: you approach an artwork, a ceramic plate hanging on the wall – and as if possessed by some evil spirit, it flings itself to the floor and shatters. You look around, horrified; everyone is staring at you. Then you notice the work’s ironic title: Please Do Not Touch the Artwork. Welcome to the world of Jeppe Hein – an artist who doesn’t believe in letting his audience remain passive spectators, but creates artworks which almost literally reach out and grab you, which only work with your (albeit often unwitting) involvement. Next time you find yourself heading for a city-centre bench to take a breather, just be aware: when Hein is in town, the simplest action may be fraught with the unexpected.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2007 Museum of Modern Art, Honolulu, Hawaii
The Curve, Barbican Centre, London

2006 X-Rummet, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark 
Kit-o-Parts, CAN Neuchâtel, France

2005 Neonwall, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Invisible Labyrinth, Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2004 Distance, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
Flying Cube, P.S.1 MOMA, New York, USA

2003 Continuity Reflecting Space, Foundation La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain 
Take a Walk in the Forest at Sunlight, Kunstverein Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Germany

2002 Take a Walk in the Forest at Moonlight, CAPC Musée d’Art contemporain, Bordeaux, France 
 
 
Selected Group Exhibitions

2006 play station, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
Backdrop, Bloomberg Space, London, UK

2005 The Pantagruel Syndrome, T1 Torino Triennale Tremusei, Turin, Italy
Black Market Worlds, 9th Baltic Triennial of International Art, CAC Vilnius & ICA Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania
Universal Experience: Art, Life, the Tourist Eye, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA

2004
Intervention Impact, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
A Secret History of Clay: From Gauguin to Gormley, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Quicksand, De Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2003 Skulpturenpark, Graz 2003 Kulturhauptstadt Europas
Interludes, Venice Biennale
Das lebendige Museum, MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2002 I Promise it is Political, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Inside/Outside, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
 
2001 Neue Welt, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Arbeit, Essen, Angst, Kokerei Zollverein, Essen, Germany

Co-founder of OTTO, a non-commercial exhibition forum in Denmark. See www.artnode.dk/otto

Further Reading

Jeppe Hein (ed.), Jeppe Hein Until Now, London: König Books, 2006

Jeppe Hein and Finn Janning (eds.), The Vital Coincidence, Cologne: Walther König, 2003

‘Jeppe Hein: Pinball Wizard’, The Art Newspaper, Art Basel/Miami Beach Edition, Saturday 3 December 2005

Jeppe Hein, exh. cat., Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2005
 
The Straight or Crooked Way, exh. cat., London: Royal College of Art, 2003