Artists

Yngve Holen

Press release

Modern Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of work by Yngve Holen. This is his fifth exhibition with the gallery and first in Paris. Entitled Braces, it features a series of new wall-based sculptures inspired by historical anchor plates—also known as tie rods and structural braces—commonly visible on the exterior walls of masonry buildings. Holen's work has previously been characterised by its use of machines, systems and industrial spare parts commonly used for transportation, communications, food production and waste. His recurring interest in our relationship with technology and consumer goods is realised through interventions into systemic objects from washing machines to cars. In Braces, Holen shifts his focus onto iron, the most common element on earth by mass. At a time marked by society's march towards full digitisation, Holen reconsiders and strips production down to the analogue: matter taken from the ground and forged into shape, one-to-one. Traditionally, these objects anchor lengths of iron that perform a load-bearing role in architecture, running horizontally through buildings. Holen considers these prevalent forms aesthetic interventions revealing a reliance on structural foundations. His sculptures are not found objects, rather based on researched designs and executed as cut off ornamental objects, similar to how Holen has previously gutted out the ornaments of car rims. Here, Holen works with a blacksmith to push the capabilities of iron, by cold forming, heating, bending, twisting and torquing the metal into three-dimensional wall forms, exploiting iron's capacity for infinite revision and reshaping. What ties this series to his practice more broadly is the insistence on systems of utility as part of the societal body at large. Where previous works are presented as future ruins, these new works create an inversion where the historical present is un-graspably ancient yet potently modern. Yngve Holen was born in 1982 in Braunschweig, Germany, and lives and works between Oslo and Berlin. He studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and sculpture at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. His work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Nordenhake, Mexico (2025); Galerie Neu, Berlin (2023); Spazio Maiocchi, Milan (2022); X Museum, Beijing (2021); Kunstverein Lübeck (2020); Modern Art, London (2019); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2019); Kunsthall Stavanger (2019); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2018); Converso, Milan (2018); Kunsthalle Basel (2016); and Bonner Kunstverein (2014). He has participated in recent group exhibitions at Modern Art, London (2024); Bundekunsthalle, Bonn (2022); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2020); Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2020); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2020); Kistefos, Oslo (2019); and mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2018); among other venues. Holen has been the recipient of prizes including the Overbeck Prize (2020); the Robert Jacobsen Prize (2017); and ars viva (2014/15). His sculptures are held in collections including Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon; The National Museum of Art, Oslo; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Sammlung Boros, Berlin. This exhibition is supported by Office for Contemporary Art Norway. To visit the exhibition, please click here to make an appointment, or contact Clément Raveu for more information. For press enquiries, please contact Sam Talbot.