Contact
marie [at] mariethams [dot] com
Practice
Marie Thams (1982, DK) is a visual artist based in Copenhagen. She holds an MFA from the Schools of Visual Arts, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen (2011) and a BA(Hons) in Fine Arts and History of Art from Goldsmiths, London (2009).
In her work Thams unites many artistic disciplines, installation, sculpture, sound, film, poetry and performance, in a unified expression. She thereby creates more entrances for conversations that deal with topics such as gender and equality, working life and productivity as well as rhetoric. Thams examines how our voices, bodies and actions are shaped in response to society's expectations and currents. Characteristic of Thams is the use of her own voice and language, just as she often works with dissecting and dismantling structures and patterns — pictorially and textually.
Her works have been presented in various national and international institutions such as Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, DK; Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, DK; ARKEN Museum for Contemporary Art, DK; Copenhagen Contemporary; Heartland Festival, DK; Kunsthal Nord, DK; ActionAid, DK; Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, DK; Screen Festival, Barcelona; URBANEK, London; Milestone Institute, Budapest; and Viborg Kunsthal, DK.
Her work is part of the collections of Danish National Gallery, Aalborg Municipality's Art Foundation, and private collections.
Current / upcoming
Artist monograph out: This Biopolitical Arena, with focus on Thams's work with voice, sound and text in film, installation and performance work from the last 10 year. Edited by Lotte Løvholm. Design by Spine Studio. Published by Marrow Press, Copenhagen, DK. Released September 24, 2025 Purchase and find more info here.
How do we live? / Hogyan élünk?, group exhibition, Nador Galery, Pécs, HU, November-December 2025. Opening November 28! More info here.
New lyrical text Songful Public Spaces coming out in the Winter 2025/26 as part of the next edition of the art and literary magasine Lay It On Thick. Edited by Natascha Nanji and Carlo Paulo Pacolor. Published by Everything's Fine, Manila, PH.
Person. Tekster om ligeværd, sprog og magt (Person. Texts on Equity, Language and Power), anthology published by Gads Forlag, November 2024. Including texts by Ingrid Baraka, Drude Dahlerup, Ida Marie Hede, Shëkufe Tadayoni Heiberg, Merete Pryds Helle, Liv Helm, Nazila Kivi, Henriette Laursen, Moussa Mchangama, Ehm Eg Miltersen, Cecilie Nørgaard, Natalia Rogaczewska, Elias Sadaq, Marie Thams, and Naima Yasin. Edited by Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller and Marie Thams. Purchase and find more info here.
Listen (Are Your Dreaming?) (sculpture, 2022) is now part of the collection of the Aalborg Municipality's Art Foundation and installed at Gigantium, Aalborg.
Press, selected
Når bøger er kunst (When books are art), article by Maria Kjær Themsen, Dagbladet Information, December 31, 2025.
Book Release / Boglancering: Marie Thams "This Biopolitical Arena", IDOART.dk, September 2025.
Marie Thams vil have kønsneutralt sprog helt ind i grundloven (Marie Thams wants gender-neutral language right into the constitution), article and podcast, interview in Zetland (in Danish), November 21, 2024.
Klog på sprog, DR P1 radio programme and podcast on language (in Danish), November 29, 2024 (Søde piger og raske drenge/ Sweet girls and fit boys).
Drop de kønnede titler? (Drop the gendered titles?), TV2 Go'Aften Danmark, November 18, 2024.
Kulturen på P1, DR P2 radio programme on Person. Tekster om ligeværd, sprog og magt, November 7, 2024.
Interview about film work person and the travelling project person – in motion, ARTICULATE Magazine (in English), June 2023.
"Favner sproget alle?" (Does this language include everyone?), radio programme and podcast Ordkløver, radio 24syv (in Danish), April 29, 2022 – interview about person (film work).
"Der er spiritualitet, aktion, eufori og melankoli i luften", review by Birgitte Ellemann Höegh, Berlingske, April 5, 2022.
"Historisk indkøb" (new acquisitions by National Gallery of Denmark), kunstkritikk.dk, June 2020.
"Aage og Yelva Nimbs Fond uddeler hæderslegater", kunsten.nu, October 2019 (honorary award).
"Marie Thams: Promises of a Distant Now", IDOART.dk, October 2019.
"5 hjerter: 10 unge kunstnere imponerer med sære, syrede og uventede oplevelser på Arken", by Trine Ross, review of Young Danish Art. Forecasting the Future, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Politiken, August 17, 2019
"Lyse stemmer og prekære forhold", by Nina Wöhlk, kunsten.nu, June 6, 2018.
"Kunstnerens arbejdsvilkår er centrum for ny bogudgivelse", by Sandra Vangberg, kunsten.nu, October 17, 2016.
"Farvel til HCØ huset", Heidi Engelund, Ugeavisen, 19. maj 2015.
"Det handler (ikke) om mit køn", by Ole Bak Jakobsen, kunsten.nu, October 27, 2015.
Writing on the work of Marie Thams, selected
"Sårbare Prognoser", by Dea Thune Antonsen in Ung dansk kunst: Samfundsprognoser, exhibition catalogue, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, DK, 2019 (Danish version); and "Precarious Forecasts in Danish Contemporary Art" in ARKEN Bulletin 8, 2020 (English version).
"The Crystal Voice", by Nina Power for the exhibition "Promises of a Distant Now", Marie Thams @ URBANEK, London, 2019.
Video by I DO ART agency, February 2018, HEARTLAND TEMPORARY "The Object is to Change the Soul"
Billedkunstneren, BKF, December 2016 (pp. 21-23), "Jeg kan ikke stoppe, jeg vil ikke stoppe", by Miriam Katz.
Den umulige ikke-handling [The impossible non-action.], by Maria Bordoff, 2015
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Teaching, organisation and other engagements
Furthermore, Thams works as an independent organiser, editor and educator - see activities, positions and teaching in CV
Press/text related to curatorial and other activities
"Joyrides" on Graduation Exhibition, Funen Art Academy, by Nanna Friis, Kunstkritikk.dk, May 12, 2021.
"At tale med én stemme", by Cecilie Høgsbroe Østergaard, Kunstkritikk.dk, November 10, 2014.
"A sculptural manifestation in the North Harbour", by Maria Bordoff, Kopenhagen.dk, November 7, 2014.
"Institutionen er vores!", by Jacob Lillemose, Kuntkritikk.dk, October 29, 2013.
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Regarding text and data mining: Text, graphics, images, sound and other content on this website are protected by copyright law. Marie Thams reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11 b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.