The New Carlsberg Foundation's Artist Grant 2026
The prize is awarded to one or more artists who, with courage, originality, and impact, distinguish themselves both in Denmark and internationally. The Danish artist becomes the first glass artist to receive the prestigious award.
Stine Bidstrup’s (b. 1982) glass works move between sculpture, craft, and installation, drawing on the history of architecture and design while still being entirely their own. For this, she uses models and molds that she produces herself using classical craft techniques.
In her works, she explores how we see—and how we think we see. How the eye and the mind continuously adjust the world. Nothing is unambiguous; everything depends on light, angle, and movement. Stine Bidstrup focuses on optical phenomena, perception, and utopian ideas in order to understand how vision and perspective shape our understanding of the world. Her works thus become a reminder that utopias do not necessarily have to be realized. Sometimes they simply need to be held up to the light.
Stine Bidstrup was educated at both the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, and also holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Copenhagen. She has exhibited her works both in Denmark and internationally and teaches at the Royal Danish Academy’s Design School on Bornholm.