CV for Ragnhild May (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Contact
info@ragnhildmay.com

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Download artist description
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Link to press materials

Instagram, Soundcloud

Education

2018-19
Post Graduate research fellow, Royal Institute of Arts, Stockholm (SE)

2015–2018
Master of Fine Arts, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts Bard College, New York (US)

2012–2013
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Sculpture, Erasmus Scholar (AT)

Awards and grants

2020–2022
The Young Artist Elite, The Danish Arts Council

2021 The Danish Arts Council

2020 The Danish Arts Council

2019
Danish Composer’s Society
Lund/Bugge Legat, SNYK
Working Grants from The Danish Arts Council

2018
Carl Nielsen Talent Award
Danish Composer’s Society
Working Grants from The Danish Arts Council

2015-16
Fulbright Scholarship

Residencies

2021
EMS Stockholm
The Danish Art Workshops

2019
The Danish Academy in Rome (IT)
3331 Tokyo (JP)

2018
EMS Stockholm
AIR Tækker Berlin (DE)

2017
ParadiseAir (JP)
Inter Arts Center Malmö (SE)
Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (FR)

2016
Hangar Centro Investigacao Artistica (PT)
International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York City (US)
EMS Stockholm (SE)

2015
AirTækkerBerlin, Berlin (DE)

2014
Diabas Masterclass, Olofström, (SE)

2013
Kiefter Steinbruch Steinbildhauer Symposium, Salzburg (AT)

Commisions

2022
Lutter Ører (Helsingør Sundhedshus) Curated by CATCH

2017
Vindspejlet på Ofelia Plads, curated by Umage

2012
Børnehaven Egetræet (Ejby, Fyn)

Working with performance, sculpture, sound art and installation Ragnhild May (b. 1988) challenges fixed categories and examines overlooked acoustic phenomena and their effects on the human sensory system. In her works the boundary between artificial and natural, human and machine, material and immaterial, work and tool are blurred, and childish and feminine elements are distorted until they become monstrous.

Her method is at once investigative, humorous and playful. She draws on music theory from different times in history, feminist thinking, computer technology and physics and builds instruments that produce new sounds with an eye for their musical potential as well as their sculptural and aesthetic qualities.

Ragnhild May received a Master of Fine Arts from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College and studied at Akademie der Bildende Künste in Vienna and postgraduate studies at Kungliga Konsthögskolan in Stockholm. She has exhibited and performed at Enter Art Fair, The national gallery of Denmark, Museum of Contemporary Art, Overgaden. Insitute of Contemporary Art, Rønnebæksholm as well as Issue Project Room (US), Roulette (US), Die Raum (DE) and SuperDeluxe (JP). In 2022 her permanent public artwork for Helsingør Health Care Center is inaugurated. Among others she has received Carl Nielsens Talent Price, International Studio & Curatorial Program, grants and awards from The Danish Arts Foundation and The Danish Composers’ Society. In the period 2020-22 she is part of The Danish Arts Foundation’s program The Young Elite.

Selected performances

2021
Nordic Music Days (FO)
Organ Sound Art Festival (DK)

2020
Copenhagen Art Week (DK)
Kunstnernes Hus Oslo (NO)
Kongegaarden Center for Art & Music (DK)
Kunsthal 44Møen (DK)
Kunsthal Rønnebæksholm (DK)
Downtown Music Gallery NYC (US)
Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (US)
The New Museum (US)

2019
Roulette NYC (US)
KLANG Roma (IT)
Mellemting Mellem Ting, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning (DK)
Café OTO (UK)
Cairo Contemporary Music Days (ET) 
Forrest Limit (JP)
OtoOto Tokyo (JP)
Astrid Noacks Atelier
Gaudeamus Muziekweek (NL)
Festival Mileux (FR)

2018
Extreme Chill Reykjavik (IS)
Ung Nordisk Musik Festival Bergen (NO)
Lyd og Litteratur Festival (w. Áaiun Nin) Aarhus (DK)
Hopkins Center for the Arts (US)
SPOR Festival for New Music & Sound Art (w. Stefan Maier) Aarhus (DK)
Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Arts (DK)

2017
Ausland Berlin (DE)
AHEAD Festival for Music and Performance Art, Vilnius (LT)
Mikro Musik Festival DAAD Galerie Berlin (DE)
Copenhagen Contemporary (DK)
SuperDeluxe Tokyo (JP)
SOTO Kyoto (JP)
KHIASMA Paris (FR)
Schaubühne Lindenfels, Leipzig (DE)

2016
G(O)NG TOMORROW Koncert Kirken (DK)
Espaco Cultural des Merces, Lissabon (PT)

2015
The Issue Project Room, New York (US)
SMK FridaysThe Baroque Edition, The Danish National Gallery (DK)

2014
ACTS 2014, Museum for Contemporary Arts, Roskilde

2013
Museum for Contemporary Arts, Roskilde

Press

Interview in Arty Farty DR.dk
Interview DR.dk
Interview Seismograf.dk
“Tilbage til Fremtiden”, review Bastard.blog
Nyt lydværk på Ofelia Plads, Kunsten.nu
Interview Poltiken.dk
Review Kunsten.nu
Review Politiken

Solo exhibitions

2022
Regelbau411
Alice Folker Gallery

2021
Sol Nexø

2019
VEGA ARTS (DK)
TADA Art Space (DK)

2018
Die Raum Berlin (DE)
Galleri RUM/KLANG

2017
Vindspejlet på Ofelia Plads (w. Ea Borre)
Inverted (w. Stefan Maier) InterArtsCenter Malmö (SE)
Organisme (w. Ea Borre), Spanien19C, Aarhus (DK)

Selected group shows

2021

Drive In For Sound Art (NO)

Enter Art Fair (DK)
Struer Tracks Biennale (DK)
The Aesthetic Ear Rønnebæksholm

2020
Interdimensionale, Gammelgaard Museum
Enter Art Fair
Alice Folker Gallery

2019
Vizura Aperta (HR)
Meetings Thorsminde (DK)
KOLONIEN Biennale III (DK)

2018
Organ, RØM (DK)
Vizura Apera (HR)
Rythm is a Dancer, Huset for Kunst og Design, Holstebro (DK)

2017
Engros, Grøntorvet (DK)

2016
Thingness, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund (DE)
Ingediens, Konsthall Varberg, Varberg (SE)

2015
Bizarre Sound Creatures, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven (NL)

2014
Klangmanifeste, Künstlerhaus, Wien (AT)
REVISIT, Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Arts (DK)

2013
LAK Festival for Nordic Sound Art (DK)
X-Border Art Biennale, Museum Arcticum, Rovaniemi (FI), Luleå (SE), Sveremosk (RU)

Publications

2021
Vandtrapper, collaboration with Morten Winther Nielsen og Kristoffer Raasted (Vinyl)

2020
Landscape Formations, Phinery (CD)

2019
Onomatopoetica, Laura Lies In (Casette/Vinyl)

2018
Pa Vi Li On featuring on The Year of the Catdog af Arturas Bumsteinas (CD)

2017
Harmoniske Øvelser, LP (Sensorisk Verden) (Vinyl)
UNHEARD Records Compilation (Online)

2013
The Sound Art Archive, Sound Art Anthology (CD)