liste art fair basel
adam christensen
16–22 june 2025
Adam Christensen’s (b. 1979, UK/DK) work takes its point of departure in the intertwining of personal stories about love and loss, violence, sex and trauma with popular-culture, dreams and fiction. Sometimes confessional and melancholic, others comical and campy, he turns his everyday experiences into theatre and spectacle. Developing various approaches to performative narrativity, his works incorporate writing and performance to installation, video, ready-mades and hand-sewn textiles taking inspiration from horror-movie directors such as Dario Argento, Robert Altman’s psychological films, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s homo-erotic dramas, not to mention the performances by Sigourney Weaver or the divas portrayed in Robert Carsen’s operas.
Drawing on the traditions of queer assemblages, Christensen’s presentation at Liste explores the construction and representation of space—and how such space can be activated. His video work You’re in my veins work operates within a hauntological temporality, featuring a soundscape composed of fragmented songs, conversations, footsteps, speech, and long silences, creating a liminal experience between past and present.
Adam Christensen is part of Liste’s performance programme, and he will perform on the opening night Monday, June 16 at 7pm.
education
2004–2007 BA Hons Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
2002–2003 The European Film College, Ebeltoft, DK
upcoming
2025 Taxi Club, Copenhagen, DK (performance)
2025 Grønningen, Den Frie, Copenhagen, DK (group)
2026 Gammel Strand, Copenhagen, DK (group)
solo exhibitions
*catalog
2025 LISTE art fair, Basel, CH
2025 Is That All You’ve Got?, Huset for Kunst og Design, Holstebro, DK
2024 I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Horsens Art Museum, Horsens, DK
2024 why don’t you shut it?, palace enterprise, Copenhagen, DK
2023 Bedtime, Tønder Art Museum, Tønder, DK*
2023 Lise, Haus N Off-Site, Athens, GRE
2022 The Wind Swallowed My Words, Hunt Kastner, Prague, CZ
2022 You Might Wanna Stay Over, w/ Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Rønnebæksholm, Næstved, DK
2021 Küss mich, bevor du gehst, Kunstverein Harbuger Bahnhof, Hamborg, DE
2020 The beauty about antisocial behaviour is that it takes you away from other people, however briefly, Futura, Prague, CZ
2019 I’m not done with you yet, Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK
2019 Criminal Longing 3, Almanac Projects, London, UK
2018 Shitty Heartbreaker, O–Overgaden Kunsthalle, Copenhagen, DK
2017 You Don’t Treat Me Like You Should, Almanac Projects, OuterSpace, Milan, IT
2016 2 Late 2 Talk part two, OUTPOST Gallery, Norwich, UK
2016 If He’s Innocent, He’s Really Fucked, Queen Adelaide, London, UK
2015 Art Show, Maison Maca, Athens, GRE
2015 Why can’t we just enjoy it the wat it is?, Artes, Porto, PT
2014 Its raining btw x, Southard Reid, London, UK
2010 My heart forgot to leap when you looked at me, Rachmanioff’s, London, UK
group exhibitions
2025 Needle & Thread, Sorø Art Museum, Sorø, DK
2025 Denne Nye Verden – overvejende Tekstil, Lundsgaard Gods, Kerteminde, DK
2024 Needle & Thread, Art Museum Brandts, Odense, DK
2024 25, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, DE
2024 The Vejen Way To Art, Vejen Art Museum, Vejen, DE
2023 Forms of The Surrounding Futures, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Göteborg, SE
2023 X A CAPUTAL DESIRE, Le Bicolore, Paris, FR
2023 Woke Up Feeling Better, Staffordshire St, London, UK
2022 Kunstnerkolonien På Sydfyn, Faaborg Kunstmuseum, Faaborg, DK
2021 Too Much (too little, too late), Glasgow International, Glasgow, UK
2021 Valentine Special, Romika TV, (online)
2020 Ghosthouse, Den Frie, Copenhagen, DK
2020 Underneath, The Nordic House, Reykjavik, IS
2020 Máscaras (Masks), Galaria Minicipal do Porto, Porto, PT
2020 Sets and Scenarios, Royal College of Art, Nottingham Comtemporary, (online)
2019 You’re In My Veins, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, DK
2018 Give Up The Ghost, Baltic Triennial 13, Vilnius/Tallin/Riga
2018 We Are Having A Little Flirt, Pump House Gallery, London, UK
2018 Cryptopian States, Cycle Music and Art Festival, Berlin, DE
2018 Staging Realities 1, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, DE
2017 When My Eyes Saw And When My Ears Heard, Hollybush Gardens, London, UK
2017 Beauty and Room, Palp Festival, Sion, CH
2017 56 Artillery Lane, w/ Keira Fox, Raven Row, London, UK
2016 Planned Obsolescence, Muscovite Gymnasium, Moscow, RF
2015 I am here, but you’ve gone, Fiorucci Art Trust and Creative Perfumers, London, UK
2014 Feeling Queezy, EKKM, Tallinn, EE
2014 Forget Amnesia, Fiorucci Art Trust, Stromboli, IT
2014 Je suis Féministre, Unit 21, Penarth Centre, London, UK
2014 Terminos, LimaZulu, London, UK
2013 One Day the Day Will Come When the Day Will Not Come, Futura, Prague, CZ
2013 Lutz Kinoy’s Loose Bodies, Elain, MGK, Basel, CH
2013 Nestbeschmutzer, Southard Reid, London, UK
2012 Soundworks, ICA, London, UK (online)
2012 She Doesn’t Care, EB&Flow Gallery, London, UK
2012 Artist Urban Action, Enclave, London, UK
2012 Group Show, Rachmaninoff’s Smith/Arnett, London, UK
2011 Film i Samtidskonsten, Bio Rio, Stockholm, SE
2011 Facts and Systems: A Science Fair, 120 East Road, London, UK
2010 i modi, Benderspace, Bermonsey, London, UK
2009 Sexually Motivated, South London Cultural Centre, London, UK
2008 Think Again, Rachmanioff’s London, UK
2008 Annual Members’ Exhibition, Studio Voltaire, London, UK
performances
2025 GARGLE, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK
2025 Interval #1, La Fabra Centre d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, ES
2025 Screening, Christiania Biennale, Copenhagen, DK
2025 Cafe OTO, London, UK
2025 Augend&Addend, Vienna, AT
2025 Liste Art Fair, Basel, CH
2024 Home Live Art, Shoreditch Town Hall, UK
2024 Performissima, Le Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles / Paris, Paris, FR
2024 Somerset House, London, UK
2023 September Sessions, Stockholm, SE
2023 Damascus Copenhagen, Fetish Shop, Vilnius Biennial, Vilnius, LT
2023 10 Year Party, Almanac, Turin, IT
2023 Subset 2, SET Woolwich, London, UK
2023 Kulturpris, Kulturpriser, Vordingborg, DK
2022 Lyra Pramuk and Adam Christensen, Valby Kulturhus, Valby, DK
2022 NIGHTHAWKS: A G.L.I.T.S. Fundraiser on International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, Ormside Projects, London, UK
2022 Feature, iklektik, London, UK
2022 Warm Little Pond x Sans Souci, Salon 75, Copenhagen, DK
2022 The Ladies Club, w/ Keira Fox, Sodas 2123, Vilnius, LT
2022 Stranger Gentle presents… Two Nights of Unlearning, Horse Hospital, London, UK
2022 FuturShock, Fold, London, UK
2022 FRIEND, Pfeil Magazine 16 Launch, Montez Press, London, UK
2022 Iconoclast, Todmorden, UK
2022 Yaga Gathering, Varėna, LT
2022 S_ex_Clu_b, Wharf Chambers, Leeds, UK
2022 Cars don’t talk back, Institut Funder Bakke, Silkeborg, DK
2022 Earth Hackney, London, UK
2021 Performance Festival: Resonance & Wonder, with Deniz Unal, O–Overgarden Kunsthalle, Copenhagen, DK
2021 Adam Christensen & Deniz Unal, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, DK
2021 Badesøen Festival, Albertslund, DK
2021 Mo.Co., Montpelier, US
2020 Confessions: Making a Performance of Yourself, Jerwood Art Space, London, UK
2020 Anarchy 99+ XCRSWX + Adam Christensen, Café Otto, London, UK
2019 Sweet Surrender, OGR, Torino, IT
2019 I wanna be lonely, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmunder, DE
2019 It’s a lot like life, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2019 Beatrice Gibson/Crone Music, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
2019 Reacción A Islandia, Pavilion Nordico, Buenos Aires, AR
2018 DRAG, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
2018 ERROR, Pfeil Magazine 9, Montez Press, Hamburg, DE
public collections
Horsens Art Museum, Horsens, DK
Museum Sønderjylland, Tønder, DK
The New Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen, DK
Danish Arts Foundation, DK
awards & grants
2023 Inger Goldmanns Fond, DK
2022 Aage & Yelva Nimbs Foundation honorary scholarship, DK
2021 Work scholarship (3 years), the Danish Arts Foundation, DK
2020 Work scholarship, the Danish Arts Foundation, DK
2019 Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Artist Award, London, UK
2006 Hamad Butt Fine Art Award, Goldsmiths College, UK
projects
2022 Kunstnerkolonien, television, season 3, DRTV, DK
2012 Ectopia, music project with Jack Brennan and Vicky Steiri
2011 Hotel Garderobe, cinema club and event space, George Tingle House, London, UK
2008 Eyes Of Blood, erotic thriller video project with Sidsel Christensen
2008–2009 South London Cultural Centre in association with Spartacus Chetwynd, Vicky Steiri, Aki Ilomaki and Urara Tsuchiya
bio
Born 1979, Vejen, Denmark
Lives and works in London, UK
Adam Christensen is a multidisciplinary artist based in London, whose work is primarily realized through textiles, music, and installation, blurring the boundaries between everyday life and fiction. Based on his immediate experiences, colored by the theatricality of every day, the spectacle of domesticity, chance encounters, and emotional and physical dramas, Christensen conveys these experiences through his performances. A primary concern of Christensen’s practice is the construction and representation of space, and what ‘activates’ that space – the unfolding narrative of heartbreak, desire, memory, and identity. He forms a ‘stage’ from which he interacts with the audience and can edit the narrative, often by singing with the accordion and reading short stories, adding layers to a story in a process of continuous development.