Margrethe Odgaard

Textile and colour designer Margrethe Odgaard approach colour as a rich sensory experience. By immersing herself in the intricate interplay of colour, material, and light, she seeks a deeper understanding of how we experience and emotionally connect with our physical surroundings.

Balancing her time between commercial collaborations with renowned companies like Kvadrat, Muuto, Montana, HAY, and IKEA, and an artistic practice rooted in self-initiated research and unique work, Odgaard has showcased her work in solo exhibitions at prominent museums such as Willumsen’s Museum (DK), Röhsska Museum (SE), Designmuseo Helsinki (FI), and Munkeruphus (DK). Since 2023, she has been associated with the Parisian gallery Maria Wettergreen, where her unique works are exhibited and made available for purchase

Her work has garnered numerous prizes and awards, including the Three-year work grant from The Danish Arts Foundation in 2015, the prestigious Torsten & Wanja Söderberg Prize in 2016 and most recent The Art, Design, and Architecture Prize from the Einar Hansen og Hustru fru Vera Hansens Fond in 2023.

Before setting up her design studio in 2013, Odgaard worked as a printing assistant at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, USA, followed by seven years as textile designer in the French fashion company EPICE. She graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design in 2005 with additional studies at Rhode Island School of Design in USA.

Margrethe Odgaard Studio
Strandgade 75 C
3000 Elsinore, Denmark

Studio enquiries
hello@margretheodgaard.com

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On study-tours to Japan, Morocco and Iceland, Margrethe Odgaard has collected colour combinations found in architecture and objects on three different continents. Instead of writing about her travel impressions, Margrethe painted colour combinations found in architecture and objects on-site, which she found especially appealing or intriguing.

The number of three colours refer to the musical chord, a harmonic set of three or more notes that is heard simultaneously. Margrethe explains: “What began as a personal study has come to form an important aspect of my understanding of colour and helped me realize how profoundly our choice of colours is influenced by the light and nature in a given culture, and how cultural preferences have roots in the way nature shaped life”.

Louisiana Channel interviewed Odgaard about why she makes colour diaries: