Forms of Belonging by Egeværk at HB381 layers geology, landscape and belonging

HB381 presents Forms of Belonging, a solo exhibition by the Denmark-based design studio Egeværk, on view from June 26 – August 14, 2026. The design exhibition features sculptural furniture and wall works developed following the studio's residency at the Wendell Castle Workshop in Scottsville, New York, and includes a work by the late American sculptor and furniture designer Wendell Castle, presented in collaboration with Friedman Benda. “Founded by Mette Bentzen and Lasse Kristensen, Egeværk has been recognised internationally for their thoughtful contributions to contemporary Danish design and furniture making. They are especially known for their expressive hand-carved furniture inspired by the natural forms and muted tones of the Scandinavian landscape,” HB381 explains in an official release.

In the exhibition, The Ontario Stones, two sculptural works inspired by glacial erratics—stones transported across vast distances by moving ice sheets—explore ideas of migration and memory. “Transported by the advance and retreat of glaciers, these erratics offer traces of a history visible in the etched valleys and drumlins, deposits, moraines and debris that are present today,” the design gallery explains. Drawing on pebbles collected along the shores of Lake Ontario, the contemporary designers enlarged these geological fragments into sculptural furniture whose carved surfaces retain the textures and markings of the original stones.

“A single drawer divulges the interior of the cabinet as though a core sample pulled from the earth’s depths. The tabletop, composed of hand-carved bioresin, scintillates and transmits light, echoing the frozen surface of a pond or lake in winter,” the contemporary design gallery continues.

Forms of Belonging also displays new wall-based works that continue the Danish designer’s investigation of glacial landscapes. Isbrae / Glacier No. 1—completed over more than 18 months (borrowing its name from the Danish word for a glacier)—translates the dramatic forms of glacial seracs into a relief of staggered wooden panels. “Conversely, works from their Glacier Shapes and Is Shapes series recall the subtractive forms of melting ice, elegiacally marking our moment in time amid the rapid transformation of northern landscapes across the globe,” the gallery explains.

Another highlight is Dione, a circular relief crafted from black-stained Danish ash backed with silver leaf. Named after one of Saturn's moons, the work evokes both celestial topographies and the light of Nordic winters. “Although darkened to an inky black as though obscured amid the empty void of space, the sculpture’s illusory contours and shadowy concavities share something of the beguiling presence of our own moon’s luminous surface,” HB381 notes.

Presented alongside Egeværk's new works is Castle's Hurry Down Sunshine (2017), a wall-mounted sculpture exemplifying his organic approach to furniture and sculpture. Its inclusion underscores the artistic dialogue between Castle's vision and Egeværk's contemporary exploration of landscape, material and form. “Our research into the stones and their migratory story has been an intellectual adventure”, Bentzen and Kristensen note in the press release, “while our time at the Wendell Castle Workshop also gave us a profound emotional sense of belonging through community, love and shared passions.” The exhibition is accompanied by Sti (Path), a documentary directed by Kristoffer Linus that chronicles the making of The Ontario Stones during the designers' residency.

“Unlike so many evocations of place, which use landscapes to situate us and convince us of a fixed and stable ground, Egeværk’s body of work explores the unavoidable challenge of negotiating our position and relationship with others, with the land and with our shared histories in all their complexities. As curator, writer and historian Glenn Adamson writes in his essay for the show, ‘Egeværk are inviting us to notice the evidence of nature’s power, which lies all around us on the ground’,” HB381 notes in the release.