Maja Lisa Engelhardt

Maja Lisa Engelhardt is a Danish painter best known for her abstractions. Inspired by the landscapes of her childhood home in the coastal region of Zealand in Denmark, Engelhardt channels her memories of a difficult childhood and her Christian spirituality to create loosely geometric, cumulus paintings. There is often a bright white or dark mass in the center of her canvases, portraying an inner light, or darkness, which hints at representation without ceding qualities of abstraction. “I hope that my images are universal and metaphysical visions of light, air, soil and ocean,” the artist has said. “These are abstract snapshots instead of concrete illustrations of biblical acts.“ Born on May 2, 1956 in Frederiksberg, Denmark, she grew up on the Odsherred peninsula with abusive parents and two younger sisters. After graduating from the Funen Art Academy in 1980, she moved to a suburb of Paris, where she began her career and received immediate recognition. Engelhardt’s works are in the collections of the Ball State Museum of Art in Muncie, Indiana and the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen, among others. The artist lives and works in Paris, France.