A major figure of Body Art, Danish artist Kirsten JUSTESEN is best known for her feminist performances and sculptures in which her body is often used to question the traditional and problematic artist-muse relationship. Justesen promotes the female body as her primary focus, moving away from the traditional focus on the female nude subject of the male gaze. In Omstaendligheder [Circumstances] (1973), a series of black and white photographs representing a naked six-month pregnant artist posing with a torso, Justesen investigates the formal qualities of the pregnant body.
In 1996, Justesen curated with VALIE EXPORT the exhibition ‘Body as Membrane’ at Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark. Justesen is currently included in the exhibition ‘Live Dangerously’ at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; Her work has been exhibited in notable exhibitions including ‘Women House’, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC (2018); ‘WOMAN Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970’, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2017); and ‘WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2007). Justesen work is held in numerous public collections including The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; and the National Gallery in Prague, amongst others.