URSULA – Ursula Munch-Petersen

Mounds of earth, snail shells, scent jars, and tableware. Why create more in a world that already has enough things? Throughout her life, Ursula Munch-Petersen (1937–2025) posed the most difficult questions an artist can ask themselves: What is the justification for my work? And how do I contribute to a better, more sustainable world?

As the fourth generation of the prominent Hjorth pottery family from Bornholm, she grew up in Gudhjem. The island’s magnificent nature and rich flora and fauna remained her greatest source of inspiration throughout her life. The combination of technical mastery, learned during her youth, and her curious, artistic approach to the material earned her widespread recognition in 1991 as the creator of the iconic URSULA tableware. This exhibition at Holstebro Kunstmuseum focuses precisely on the artist behind the ceramics, where gentleness, care, and community are the guiding principles.

She was one of the few artists who managed to bridge the gap between functional design on one hand and freely formed craft on the other. The upcoming exhibition is the first major presentation of her body of work in nearly 30 years. It reveals new artistic facets of the beloved ceramicist, who today stands as one of the greatest and most original innovators of form in Danish ceramics.

Spanning from small, whimsical shapes to large-scale public commissions, Ursula Munch-Petersen navigates a wildly overgrown stylistic landscape of historical remnants and future visions. The audience will experience works, objects, and artistic highlights from her entire career, which in various ways explore the connections between form, function, nature, and culture. From her early years at Bing & Grøndahl, through public relief installations and unique studio pieces, to sketches, models, and molds from her studio on Møn: in her practice, Ursula Munch-Petersen sought to unite—perhaps even reconcile—humanity with its surroundings and all its objects through empathy, recognition, and warmth. With the 21st-century renaissance of craftsmanship in art, the need for proximity and slowness, and the renegotiation of our relationship with the earth and nature, Ursula Munch-Petersen is more relevant than ever.

The exhibition is the first since the artist's passing in 2025 and is an expanded version of Ursula Munch-Petersen - Lyst, curated by Mai Dengsøe and shown at Gammel Strand from May 21 to August 30, 2026. The exhibitions at both Gammel Strand and Holstebro Kunstmuseum have been created in close collaboration with the Estate of Ursula Munch-Petersen.

_{Photo | Ursula Munch-Petersen, Chicory, 2006. Glazed stoneware. Vejen Kunstmuseum}