Alice Folker Gallery is excited to present Wings of Desire, a solo exhibition by Augusta Atla. Atla explores the female gaze, desire, and longing, weaving together personal memory, mythology, and cultural history. Her works occupy a space of eros and existential yearning, transforming intimate experiences and absent presences into luminous, poetic compositions. Rooted in both the body and the imagination, the exhibition maps the emotional and visual landscape of love, separation, and the pursuit of understanding, offering a vision where desire becomes both a force and a way of seeing.
Augusta Atla (b. 1979, Copenhagen, DK) is a visual artist, poet, and writer educated in London with a BA in Fine Art (Studio Practice) from Goldsmiths in London (UK) and an MA History & Theory from the Architectural Association in London (UK).
She works with various media, such as photography, collages, drawing, video, sculpture, paintings, and installations. In her works, Atla investigates the female gaze and discusses ideas like gender, voyeurism, memory, identity, power and sexuality.
Augusta Atla is also a passionate art critic, debater and lecturer, and a politically engaged writer on the politics of art. Atla interviewed the Danish Minister of Culture in 2022 regarding gender discrimination issues in the world of contemporary art and the gender gap in the state-supported museums of Denmark. Atla's articles have been published in Berlingske, Dagbladet Information, Politiken, Magasinet Kunst, CHART Publication, Kulturmonitor, Børsen, Weekendavisen and Jyllands-Posten. Between 2022-2023 Atla had a monthly column at Kunsten.nu. Atla is often on the radio and podcasts participating in debates of the importance of free art in a democracy. She has participated in DR TV DEADLINE, TV2 DATO podcast, Berlingske Pilestræde, P1 Kulturen and many more.
She has received the Award of Excellence from Goldsmiths University of London (2006), the Horsens Art Museum Art Award (2007), Anne Marie Telmányi født Carl-Nielsens Fond til Støtte for Kvindelige Billedkunstnere over 40 years (2023), Dansk Tennis Fond Residency (2023) and a work grant from the Finn Nørgaard Association (2025).
Between 2007 and 2016 Augusta lived like a nomad, years in Venice, Rome, Athens, Paris. An art pilgrimage, visiting the works of the masters of European art, researching religious iconography and exploring the history of Greek Antiquity. From 2014 to 2016, Augusta founded, curated and ran MAISON d’ART CONTEMPORAIN ATHÈNES in Athens, Greece.
Atla's exhibitions include Horsens Art Museum, Rønnebæksholm, Sophienholm Kunsthal, Viborg Kunsthal, Randers Art Museum, Museet for Samtidskunst, Brandts, Charlottenborg Kunsthal. Atla has also exhibited at exhibitions abroad: REMAP4 Contemporary Art Festival Athens, Greece; Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Spain; Tou Scene, Norway; Academy of Arts Berlin, Germany; Center for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France; The Danish Institute in Athens, Athens, Greece; Tallinna Kunstihoone, Estonia; Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens, Greece.
Atla's works are represented at both private and public collections, including Horsens Art Museum, Danish Arts Foundation, The Danish Parliament's Art Collection and Randers Art Museum as well as private collections such as Viafarini (IT), NEON / Dimitris Daskalopoulos Collection (GR).