Cajsa von Zeipel

With its blend of classical technique and contemporary themes, "Rabbit" is a work that clearly bears von Zeipel’s signature. It combines craftsmanship with a strong commentary on our time - where the body becomes a bearer of questions about identity, norms, and representation. "Rabbit" is not just a sculpture to look at, but a work that actively engages in a dialogue with the viewer, art history, and our present day.

The figure in "Rabbit" sticks out its tongue and holds up its hands like rabbit ears - a gesture that is both childlike, confident, and defiant. This attitude recurs in many of von Zeipel’s works, where youth culture, queer expressions, and body ideals meet the sculptural language traditionally used to depict male heroes in marble. Here, history is turned around, and the sculpture becomes a way to make room for bodies and identities that have often been made invisible in art history.

The sculpture is hand-modeled in white plaster - a material that both references classical sculptural ideals and questions them. Von Zeipel does not use it to reinforce ideas of eternal truths, but to challenge them. The monumental scale enhances the figure’s presence and makes it impossible to ignore.

"Rabbit" was exhibited in 2015 at Millesgården in Stockholm, in the exhibition ZOO COLLECTIVE: Cajsa von Zeipel vs. Carl Milles. There, von Zeipel’s works were placed in direct dialogue with Milles’, and the artist herself highlighted the similarity in their craftsmanship - both work on a large scale, by hand and directly in plaster. But while Milles celebrated mythological and masculine ideals, von Zeipel highlights contemporary bodies shaped by complex identities.

Cajsa von Zeipel (born 1983 in Gothenburg) has had a rapid international career since graduating from the Royal Institute of Art in 2010. Her works have been exhibited at Rubell Museum in both Miami and Washington D.C., Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Athens Biennale, Copenhagen Contemporary, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Solo exhibitions include Company Gallery in New York (DASH, 2025), Andrehn-Schiptjenko in Paris (Alternative Milk, 2022), and Cherish in Geneva.

She is today represented in several important collections, including Moderna Museet, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Rubell Museum, Onassis Foundation, Faurschou Foundation, and 21c Museum.

Photo: Installation view Millesgården ©Cajsa von Zeipel/Bildupphovsrätt 2022.