Alexander Tovborg b. 1983
Alexander Tovborg works across painting, drawing, bronze sculpture, and performance to explore the role of religion, faith, and myth in shaping human experience. Over the last two decades, Tovborg has developed a distinctive visual language characterized by a layering of ancient and contemporary symbolism. His figurative paintings and watercolors on paper approach the threshold of abstraction, combining vivid color and geometric forms to explore the emotive power of images.
Tovborg's work inspires contemplation and reflection, often highlighting shared motifs found in origin stories across the world while proposing alternative narratives. His practice involves active research into the ways religion, spiritualism, and folk history inform human culture, with sources of reference spanning religious iconography, early modern literature, and the natural world.
In 2016, Tovborg presented The Knight of Faith, an inflatable installation of Noah's Ark, at GL Strand in Copenhagen. Following a trip to the Vatican in 2020, he began a series of paintings and sculptures reimagining the Madonna and Child. In 2024, he completed a major commission for the Rigshospitalet Glostrup, joining a number of permanent installations across Denmark.
In 2025-2026, Alexander Tovborg: Divine Comedy brought together over 200 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. The exhibition included two site-specific installations, including a fresco-inspired mural focused on the symbol of the apple, and a monumental mosaic window. The exhibition followed The Church at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in 2023, where Tovborg transformed the museum into an immersive, modern cathedral complete with biblical paintings, stained-glass windows, and fresco-inspired murals.
Tovborg lives and works in Copenhagen. He attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark (2004-2010) and the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, Germany (2007-2009). He has exhibited at major venues internationally, including the Grand Palais, Paris, Camden Arts Centre, London, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City, and more. His work is collected by ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany; ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, and Museum for Religious Art, Denmark. Tovborg is represented by Olney Gleason, New York and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen.
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Eve (icon) -
Meditation (icon)
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Skyscraper 1
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Knock Knock 13
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Madonna of Departures
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The Way of Sorrow 99
