Maja Malou Lyse is a multidisciplinary artist whose bold and provocative work dissects the entanglements of desire, power, and mass media. At the core of her practice lies a critical examination of the body’s relationship to the image, a dynamic rendered increasingly complex in the digital age. Lyse interrogates how images—ubiquitous and unrelenting—shape sexuality, self-perception, and the commodification of identity, exploring how media, pornography, and cultural history shape and preserve these constructs over time.
Her work situates itself within the platforms that dominate our visual environment—television, magazines, tabloids, billboards, and social media. By appropriating and reconfiguring these familiar spaces, Lyse engages in a nuanced critique of their influence, crafting interventions that unravel the symbiotic relationship between art and media reality. In doing so, she exposes the spectacle that defines contemporary culture: a spectacle that both seduces and subjugates, embedded deeply in our collective consciousness.
Led with humor, ambiguity, and the vernacular of pop culture, Lyse’s art compels a deeper reckoning with the deluge of visual stimuli saturating modern life. She raises essential and unsettling questions: How does this relentless torrent of images sculpt our desires, behaviors, and sense of self? With a fearless commitment to probing complex yet urgent topics, Lyse has established herself as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary art, confronting the spectacle of the erotic image with criticality and wit.
Maja Malou Lyse (b. 1993, Denmark) graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2022. She has had solo exhibitions at Overgaden (Copenhagen) and Brandts Kunst Museum (Odense), and participated in group shows at the National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Copenhagen Contemporary (Copenhagen), Blueproject Foundation (Barcelona), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), ARoS (Aarhus), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), and Museum of Contemporary Art (Roskilde) among others. From 2018-2019, Lyse had a television show “Sex med Maja” (Sex with Maja) on DR—the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
Maja Malou Lyse will represent Denmark in the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale. The solo exhibition in the Danish Pavilion will open in April 2026.
