SPECTA (DK)

SPECTA represents a diverse group of Scandinavian and international artists. Presenting a wide range of media, the gallery profile emphasizes great variety with a focus on the artist’s original approach to material / media and precisely defined practices. The gallery's artists are all represented in public and private collections. Founded by Else Johannesen in 1980 SPECTA is one of the longest standing galleries in Denmark, and it was passed down to Gitte Johannesen at the beginning of 2019.

Peder Skrams Gade 13
1054 Copenhagen K
Denmark
(+45) 33 13 01 23

gitte@specta.dk
specta.dk

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SPECTA brings together works by three artists exploring original approaches to a variety of materials. Combining crafts with distinct materials more often found in other fields of work and various industries, the presentation includes works which are both stringent and organic. The presentation foregrounds material-based practices, where craftsmanship, technique, and process are not only tools but forms of knowledge in themselves and where crafting is understood as a mode of thinking and of experience. In a time marked by acceleration and digital abstraction, the works insist on tactility and on the patience of a time consuming process.

Portrait of Isabel Berglund

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA. Photo by Dorte Krogh

Signe Jais (DK)

Signe Jais comes from a more stringent and controlled starting point. Signe Jais adds poetic fragility to her mathematical explorations in carefully choreographed thread on vintage paper and cardboard. She references mathematical ideas, as she creates her repetitive patterns. The same duality of control over the patterns and the infinity are found in the works of Signe Jais.

Signe Jais (DK, 1967) lives and works in Copenhagen. Educated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, exhibitions include "EN COLLAGE. Franciska Clausen 125 years", Art Museum Brundlund Slot, Aabenraa, DK, "The Sound of a Line", SPECTA Copenhagen. Represented in the collections of a.o. New Carlsberg Foundation, Danish Arts Agency, Novo Nordisk, The city of Copenhagen

Part of the series 'Moving straight lines slightly bent'

Sewing thread on paper and cardboard
2026

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Sewing thread on paper and cardboard
2025

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Sewing thread on paper and cardboard
2025

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Sewing thread on paper and cardboard
2025

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

The Sound of a Line

Installation View

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

Portrait of Signe Jais

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

Frances Goodman (SA)

Frances Goodman employs ornamentation and endless repetition as strategies that seduce us with dizzying surfaces of color and shine. In her new body of works, a series of quilts, the meticulous work is focused on bits and pieces of a great variety of fabric. While the craft of quilting is an exercise in both patience and abstraction, the result are figurative quilts, depicting blister packs for pills. In that way, Goodman uses time-consuming craft to show an action of a moment.

Frances Goodman (ZA, 1975) lives and works in Copenhagen. Educated from Goldsmith's College in London, exhibitions include "I Hit You With A Flower", Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, NL, Frieze Sculpture (presented by SPECTA), London, "Ubuntu, A Lucid Dream" at Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Represented in a.o. Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, USA, Foundation Sindika Dokolo, Luanda, Angola, Joseph Kouli Collection, Paris, France.

Still Searching

Acrylic nails, wire, fiber glass, silicone, glue
2022

Courtesy of the artist and SPECTA

Portrait of Frances Goodman.

Courtesy of the artist and Wilson Saplana Gallery. Photo by Jurie Potgieter

SPECTA (DK)

Curated forCHART

Signe Jais (DK)

Part of the series 'Moving straight lines slightly bent'

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

The Sound of a Line

Part of the series 'Moving straight lines slightly bent'

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

Part of the series 'The Sound of a Line'

The Sound of a Line

Frances Goodman (SA)

Still Searching

Still Searching

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