Copenhagen’s Winter Culture Calendar

Instead of hibernating, Copenhagen’s museums and galleries use the winter months to recharge the cultural capital of the city and its surrounding area. This season’s big exhibitions take on significant cultural and social themes, from the role of water in our world, to the destruction of art and culture as a political tool. The city’s modern art museums celebrate the energetic and creative forces of Frederik Næblerød and Marta Minujín in significant solo exhibitions, while DesignMuseum Danmark takes a cosy approach and focuses deeply on ceramics, and in particular, the humble and cosy mug.

Beyond the city’s iconic winter exhibitions, there’s another reason to visit Copenhagen’s arts and culture institutions in winter. These warm, beautiful and well lit spaces are home to extensive collections, welcoming and well-regarded cafés and restaurants, curated design and book shops, and even indoor gardens. For shopping, design, lunch and nature experiences, they’re a one-stop shop.

These are our picks for the best winter exhibitions to visit this year:

This winter’s main exhibition Iconoclasm: Art as a Battleground brings together works from Glyptoteket’s collection with pieces from the British Museum in London, the Vatican Museum in Rome and the Altes Museum in Berlin as it explores humankind’s turbulent relationship with art. It’s set to be an impressive take on ancient artefacts considering how and why art has been destroyed to challenge established orders and reflect religious and political change. As they say, even in ancient times, art was a battleground for power struggles and a place where identities were negotiated.

Beyond the main winter exhibition, Glyptoteket’s Winter Garden is an oasis during a Copenhagen winter, a glasshouse-like space with palm trees and fountains with a golden light that adds a Mediterranean glow. It’s a cosy space to browse and enjoy, with a lovely cafe overlooking the gardens and a shop full of art books to enjoy at your leisure.

What could be a cosier item to wrap your hands around than a warm, handmade Danish designed mug? The season’s key exhibition at DesignMuseum Danmark is all about cups and brings together the work of 30 ceramics artists to examine the story of cups and ceramics in the country. As well as new ideas for cups made by modern ceramicists, the exhibition includes a look behind the scenes of the design process and a journey through history using the museum's collection of historical cups that date back to the 17th century.

The museum’s newest permanent exhibition Danish Modern opened in 2024 and offers a comprehensive view on the history of Danish design in the 20th century.

February sees the biggest solo exhibition to date for Danish artist Frederik Næblerød at the Arken Museum of Modern Art. Næblerod brings an uncompromising creativity to painting, ceramics and sculpture in an energetic artistic universe that references the grotesque, absurd and humorous. Arken is one of the city’s most exciting galleries, known for its challenging, experiential and playful take on modern art.

Beyond the main gallery, Arken (‘the ark’) has a restaurant with fantastic views of the rough winter sea and the beach, and is surrounded by a sculpture park with more than 20 works of art by the likes of Anthony Gormley, Alex da Corte, Jeppe Hein and Superflex. Its curated design shop is also stocked full of homewares and design treats to take home as a souvenir.

Europe’s first retrospective of the Argentine pop artist Marta Minujín is putting a bold stroke of colour into the winter at Copenhagen Contemporary this winter. The show covers Minujín’s life and showcases several recent pieces, including gigantic installations, sculptures and collage paintings, all shot through with her iconic neon strips and lit with video projections. It promises to be a dynamic and energetic exhibition, perfect for the winter months. 

It’s a good pair with the gallery’s site-specific James Turrell work, Aftershock, a stunning and  immersive light projection held in an all-white room. The gallery’s design award-winning café Connie Connie offers a calming space to digest it all.

In a fascinating dry dock setting, long attracting seafarers, sailors and adventurers, the Danish National Maritime Museum continues to show its blockbuster National Geographic Society photography exhibition Pristine Seas: Bringing the Ocean Back until the start of March. The exhibition draws upon over a decade worth of global expeditions conducted by the National Geographic Pristine Seas project to document and protect the ocean so it can heal, rebound, and regenerate. Steps from the sea, the exhibition puts the world’s seas in focus along with conservation efforts seeking to protect them. 

This season’s key exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center also takes water as its theme and looks at how urban environments are adapting to a rapidly changing natural world. Water, as they say, is one of the greatest challenges of our time. From rising sea levels to urban downpours, it looks at how cities including Copenhagen are facing those issues, and asks how they can adapt to rising water levels. With input from citizens, scientists, architects, urban planners and organisations, it looks to create solutions for a new kind of daily life with water.

Lean into the romance of winter with the new shape-shifting exhibition at Ordrupgaard. After a bracing wintery walk around its beautiful sculpture gardens, dive into the museum’s new exhibition which delves into myths, legends and magic. Meet chimeric creatures, unicorns and vampires in an exhibition showing work by a private collector that takes an innovative view on gender and sexuality and dreams of a new world. Works on display include those by Maurice Denis, Romaine Brooks and Camille Claudel.

Until 19 January, it’s still possible to see Flora Yukhnovich’s lush and romantic paintings in her Into The Woods exhibition, along with Ai WeiWei’s Lego reworking of Claude Monet in his thought-provoking Water Lilies #1. A trip to Ordrupgaard is not complete without a walk around Finn Juhl’s house, which stands in its grounds. One of the leading figures in the creation of Danish design in the 1940s, he introduced the Danish Modern style to America.

Further opportunities to feed your mind and follow your interests are available all over Copenhagen, from Viking history at the National Museum of Denmark to the Danish and French art collections at The National Gallery of Denmark. As the reigning World Capital of Architecture, Copenhagen’s buildings are a feast for the eyes and the mind too: Grundtvig’s Church is one of the city’s most awe-inspiring buildings, along with the beautiful Rosenborg Castle, home to the crown jewels. The city’s Round Tower has an observatory at the top and hosts winter stargazing sessions through its telescope every Tuesday and Wednesday evening. 

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