Damien & The Love Guru

It is never really possible to carve out what’s inside a head or a heart, make it a picture, but it is possible to attempt. At the intersection of sculpture and painting and human and animal, Melanie Kitti’s work is such an attempt and isn’t it also an actual archaeology. Chalky and auburn like a past, almost figurative like opaque stanzas, stretched out or shattered like diasporic lives, Kitti’s motifs amass in a language that looks as consistent as it is ambiguous. Its cubical alphabet is a layered one, a multitude of pigments and identities piled up in twisted frescoes forming a vocabulary of conundrums. Someone’s inside is never not a riddle and never not broken and never not beautiful.

Education

• The Academy of Creative Writing in Copenhagen, 2019–2021
• Master in fine art, Oslo National Academy of The Arts, 2017–2019
• The school for conceptual and contextual practices, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of visual arts, 2017–2018
• Bachelor in medium and material based art, Dept. of textile, Oslo National Academy of The Arts, 2013–2016

Upcoming

• Duo exhibition with Carl Mannov, Huset for Kunst og Design, Holstebro, 2026
• Solo exhibition, Damien & The Love Guru, Zurich, 2025
• Solo exhibition, Skal Contemporary, Skagen, 2025
• Summer Art Prize Exhibition, Sandefjord Kunstforening, Sandefjord, 2025
• Chicken Wings, with Nynne Roberta Pedersen, Femidomen, Nesodden, 2024
• CFHILL, group exhibition, Stockholm, 2024
• Duo exhibition with Majd Abdel Hamid, Signal Konsthall, Malmö, 2024
• Hesten og magten, group exhibition, Rønnebæksholm Kunsthal, Næstved, 2024

Solo & duo exhibitions

• Just us (who are apart), with Mickael Marman, Damien & The Love Guru, Brussels, 2024
• Jag har skalat av mig, Carl Eldhs Ateljemuséum, Stockholm, 2024
• I boiled my roots in an old pot, Andersens Contemporary, Copenhagen, 2024
• Lumps, lumps, lumps becomes bumps on my tounge, Overgaden, Copenhagen, 2023
• Fake children with Vilde Tuv, Stormen kunst/dájdda, Bodø, 2023
• Eple i øye, with Anna Sofia Mathiasen, Elephant Kunsthall, Lillehammer, 2022
• Dear, my dear, Hoydølum sanatorium, Faroe Islands, 2022
• Kippar efter vinden. (ledsen och klumpig), Rønnebæksholm, Næstved, 2022
• Ariel is searching for her habits everywhere, Ariel feminisms, Copenhagen, 2022
• Jag snubblar på en jättestor tår, Art hub, Copenhagen, 2022
• Fake children, with Vilde Tuv, Tag team, Bergen, 2022
• Album / Volum, Norsk Billedhoggerforening, Oslo, 2021
• Bawl screen; A topography, Salon 75, Copenhagen, 2021
• The intern ship, Galleri Slursula, Oslo, 2019

Selected group exhibitions

• Hard Scent Salon, Copenhagen, 2024
• gos earát ledje duolbman lei mearka mis/der andre hadde tråkket var det avtrykk i oss/where others had stepped, there were traces in us, with Elina Waage Mikalsen, Oslo Kunstforening, 2024
• Systema Plus, Marseille, 2023
• Textile memories, Heirloom, Copenhagen, 2022
• Dangerous when wet, curated by Mette Woller, Copenhagen Contemporary, 2022
• Jeg kaller det kunst, Nasjonalmuséet, Oslo, 2022
• Crunchy spores, hydropoly, Vermilion Sands, Copenhagen, 2022
• Stone Roses, Die Brücke Museum, Berlin, 2019

Related activities

• Co-founder and curator at the artist run space Destiny’s in Oslo
• Co-founder and editor of Abhivyakti, an interdisciplinary art magazine with BIPOC contributors only

Grants and awards

• Artist award, Bernadotte foundation, 2024
• 1-year artist stipend from Statens Kunstfond – Literature, 2024
• 1-year artist stipend from Statens Kunstfond – Visual Arts, 2024
• 1-year artist stipend from Billedkunstnernes vederlagsfond, 2024
• Artist award, Nimbs foundation, 2023
• Exhibition award, Statens kunstfond, 2023
• 1-year artist stipend from Statens Kunstfond – Visual Arts, 2023
• Artist stipend from Ingrid LIndbäck Langgard’s foundation, 2023
• 1-year artist stipend from Billedkunstnernes vederlagsfond, 2023
• 1-year artist stipend from Billedkunstnernes vederlagsfond, 2022
• 1-year artist stipend from Billedkunstnernes vederlagsfond, 2021
• Diversestipend, Kulturrådet, 2019
• BKH art student grant, 2019
• Artist stipend from Ingrid LIndbäck Langgard’s foundation, 2017

• borte, published by Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology, Copenhagen, 2023
• Halvt urne, halvt gral, published by Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 2022
• Hjertet er en fold med heste, published by Amulet Forlag, Copenhagen, 2022

• ‘What to See During Oslo Art Weekend,’ FRIEZE Magazine: Critics Guide, 2024
• ‘3 Aktuella konstnärer just nu: Christine Ödlund - Melanie Kitti - Tove Mauritzson,’ Konstguiden, 2024
• Jag har skalat av mig, Art Notes, 2024
• ‘Hun er en kunstner, der kan og vil vokse i to retninger,’ Politiken, 2023
• Interview, Kunsten, 2023
• ‘Rebelsk fresko,’ Kunstkritikk, 2023
• ‘15. desember – Melanie Kitti,’ Kunstkritikk, 2022
• ‘Melanie Kitti er ikke bare en sælsom digter, men også en foruroligende god kunstner,’ Information, 2022
• ‘Melanie Kitti debuterer som nynordisk gotiker, men mest af alt som helt sin egen,’ Information, 2022
• ‘5 hjerter: Sikke en debut! Det er simpelthen så godt,’ Information, 2022
• ‘Knuste heste,’ Kunstkritikk, 2022
• ‘Ut Av Det Knuste Skallet,’ Klassekampen, 2022
• ‘Some Waves Wave Forever,’ Kunstkritikk, 2021