Artist Bio
Through his photography, workshops, and large temporary constructions, Troels Steenholdt Heiredal reassembles the world, enabling people to reflect on how they relate to it.
Working highly interdisciplinary, he’s able to develop projects from idea, through concept, design, and construction. His work spans from the written word through photography and camera constructions to large-scale architectural spaces. Always with a keen sense for the small detail and tactility.
In 2019, Troels learned that he is autistic. He has since been examining his life and works with new eyes to understand how neurodivergence shapes how he sees and responds to the world. In his 2020 exhibition “Looking Into Looking”, he explored how the constant rebuilding of the world in his art—layer by layer—is a direct response to trying to understand it.
Troels is an invited guest critic at Cornell University, RISD, and The Cooper Union and was a founding fellow at Arts, Letters, & Numbers. He has worked, exhibited, and lectured in the US, Argentina, Colombia, Aruba, The Dominican Republic, and Denmark, including at Kunsthal Charlottenborg and the Copenhagen Metro. He holds a Bsc in Architectural Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a Masters in Architecture from Aarhus School of Architecture.
Troels was born and raised in Toftlund, a Danish village of 3000, and is currently living on Lenape Land, occupied territory now known as Brooklyn, NY, USA.
Artist Statement
I am exploring the difference between seeing and perceiving.
I am interested in how we build knowledge from the objects and spaces we are daily surrounded by. Being autistic means that I have often felt like an observer; trying to decode the world around me, and the meaning of its objects. This has led me to use found matter that I sculpt into multi-layered experiences defying a clear meaning, but rather asking questions about that which we take for granted.
When we take in the world, we impose personal layers onto it, in an effort to make sense of it. This in effect builds a world within us, our own personal inner geographies that we constantly navigate and simultaneously alter when making up our minds. I want to explore this landscape especially to find and challenge my own inherent biases hidden within it and use it to open conversation and build space for others to address theirs.
CV
Build Projects
2019/20 Loft Renovation, Aarhus DK
2014 Multiple Exposure in Real Time, FRONT art space, New York City USA
2014 North Bench /// South Bench, Roskilde DK
2012 + 2013 Little Big Thing, Aarhus, DK
2012 ILOVIT theater, Copenhagen Art Festival, Copenhagen DK
2011+ 2012 + 2013 Waves at Shore Café, Roskilde DK
2010 sittingHIDDENsitting, Aarhus DK
2010 + 2011 Plastic Heart, Plastic Lung [Collaboration, WHOISIN], Norberg S
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Looking Into Looking, In The Gallery, Copenhagen DK
2015 Invisible Aarhus, Galleri Grundstof, Aarhus DK
2015 Through Multiple Lenses, Leth & Gori, Copenhagen DK
2015 Toftlund by Troels at The Art Society of Toftlund, Toftlund DK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017 Landscape | Cityscape, Galleri Grundstof, Aarhus DK
2016 Portrait of a Landscape, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York City USA
2016 Artist Co-op III, Jamaica Center for the Arts and Learning, New York City USA
2013 Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen DK
2012 Art Underground, Forum Metro Station, Copenhagen DK
2011 Berlin White Lines [WHOISIN art collective], HBC, Berlin D
Artist Talks / Workshops
2021 Found Poetry Talk + Workshop, Creative Mornings Virtual Field Trip, online.
2018 Museo Sívori, Buenos Aires ARG
2016 + 2017 + 2018 Found Poetry Talk + Workshop, Arts Letters & Numbers, Averil Park, NY USA
2016 Cornell University, Ithaca NY USA
2016 Atelier ‘89, Oranjestad Aruba
2013 Parsons The New School of Design, New York City USA
2013 La Haldaria Gallery, Medellín COL
2012 Youth Laboritorium for Art, The Danish National Gallery, Copenhagen DK
Published
2018 Moderator for New York City Creative Salon, New York City USA
2015 + 2016 Inner Geographies + About Reading, Poem, On Site Review No. 33 + 34, Calgary Can
Grants/Awards & Mentionings/Residencies
2020 Exhibition Grant, Dreyers Foundation DK
2016 Travel Grant for Research trip to Mexico, Dreyers Foundation DK + Danish Arts DK
2015 Exhibition Grant for Through Multiple Lenses, Dreyers Foundation DK
2014 Workshop for senior students at Escula Desiño, Altos de Chavón Dom. Rep.
2014 Fellow of Arts Letters & Numbers, Averill Park NY USA
2013 Casa de Campo, residency, Architectural Advisor to the director, Medellín COL
2013 + 2014 Travel Grant, Danish Arts DK
2011 KAB Scholarship given to outstanding students at Aarhus School of Architecture, Aarhus DK
2010 toleraCITY - 2nd prize Open Film Competition Dense Living [Collaboration w. Thomas Lillevang] DK
Employment
2017 – current Bone / Levine Architects, New York City USA
2015 – 2017 SITU STUDIO, New York City USA
2014 + 2012 + 2009 Elkiær + Ebbeskov Architects, Copenhagen DK
2014 + 2009 Spektrum Architects, Copenhagen DK
2007 NL Architects, Amsterdam NL
Education
2012 Master of Arts in Architecture, Aarhus School of Architecture, Aarhus, DK
2009 Bsc Architectural Engineering, The Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, DK