Astrid Marie Christiansen, Linoleum floor for Bakkeskolen in Esbjerg, 2019. Photo: Anne Trap-Lind

What we work for

Danish Visual Artists (BKF) is Denmark's professional organization for visual artists with 2.100 members.

The association's main purpose is to safeguard the professional, economic, social and legal interests of artists and to promote the role of art everywhere in society. BKF protects the artistic freedom of the individual artist and respect for the visual arts in general.

Here you can read more about our special cases.

Art and climate

Art and the visual artist have their natural role in the climate fight and in the development of new climate solutions. BKF works purposefully to make art a natural part of the green transition. 

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Art in the municipalities

Art brings life and development to local communities, creates new communities and increases the quality of life in everyday life. That is why BKF is working to ensure that more municipalities have an art policy and are strengthened in their work with the professional visual arts.

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A sustainable working life and good conditions in the industry

Danish Visual Artists works to ensure good conditions for the visual arts profession. By articulating the value of art in society, by contributing to research in the industry and by supporting measures that directly improve the artists' conditions. 

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Equality and diversity in the arts

For BKF, equality is not only about equal conditions for the sexes, but also about equality in relation to other visible and invisible markers of identity. Eg. racialisation, religion, sexual orientation, social class, age, functional variations etc. That is why BKF works to create equality and diversity in the art world.

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Continuing education and artistic research

Strengthen further and further education opportunities for visual artists

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Visions and policies

- BKF speaks for the artists and art

Read e.g. here about BKF's action plans during and after COVID-19

BKF's plan for the arts during covid-19

BKF's action plan for visual arts 2019

Art in construction

Use the visual arts better and more in construction: Expand the Decoration circular so that it also applies to municipal, regional and public-private builders, and involve the artists already in the project phase

Employ artists as consultants on construction projects, so that art is included from the start

Art in the education system

Strengthen the visual arts in teacher education

Make visual arts a compulsory subject at all levels of primary school

Give municipal art schools and Visual Arts Basic Course (BGK) their own legislation – just like the music schools and Musical Basic Course

Support the country's three art academies and give them sustainable finances

Make the Huskunstnerordningen permanent - and expand the scheme so that more children and young people have the opportunity to encounter professional art during their school days

Art throughout the country

Art creates new communities in the countryside and in the cities - give all citizens throughout the country the opportunity to meet the professional visual arts in everyday life

Put smaller towns on the art world map: empower local workshops with facilities for professional artists

The value of art

Art is vital for the individual and for democracy - art creates space for new realizations, reflection and criticism in a time characterized by accelerating image and information flows. Therefore, the working conditions of professional artists must be strengthened.

Art creates economic value – a diverse and well-functioning artistic life benefits the whole of society, also financially

Danish Visual Artists (BKF) is Denmark's professional organization for professional visual artists with approximately 2.000 members. The association's main purpose is to look after visual artists' professional, economic, social and legal interests and to promote as wide an application of visual artists' work as possible.

For this work, BKF has a secretariat, a board of directors and the magazine Billedkunstneren, which is published four times a year.

In addition to the traditional art forms of painting, sculpture and graphics, BKF also represents practitioners within the newer visual art forms such as multimedia, photography and installation. The association has admission criteria to ensure that the members have a professional work within the visual arts.

BKF is, among other things, represented in the Danish Arts Foundation' board of representatives, Danish Artists' Council, municipal visual arts council, Danish Image Authors, Copydan, the Swedish Libraries Agency as well as in several international consultations, e.g. Nordic Art Association.

Danish Visual Artists (BKF) was founded in 1969 by a merger between the Association of Painters, Danish Sculptors and Graphic Artists. 

READ MORE ABOUT BKF'S HISTORY (pdf)

Latest news

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M100 reopens with new ambitions

After a break and a move, the artist-run exhibition space M100 is back in Odense with new energy and greater ambitions.

From intention to everyday life. About the work of a Visual Arts Council

Comment: In municipal visual arts councils we often talk about quality, community and education. But all too often we lose sight of when the work is revealed. It is in everyday life – not at the opening – that art should work, writes visual artist and member of the visual arts council in Middelfart Municipality, Cecilia de Jong.

New member: Peter Ringgaard

Fortunately, the Danish Association of Visual Artists is constantly gaining new members. Each issue of the Danish Association of Visual Artists presents one of them. This time Peter Ringgaard, who works from Copenhagen, Thailand and Tisvilde.

A cyclical approach to the artist's life

“We never find ourselves in situations where we have to discuss whether one or the other's practice should be prioritized,” say artist couple Kirsten Astrup & Maria Bordorff. They also point out that there are different phases in life, and that no one can or should be expected to be able to do it all at once.

The Artist's Workshop: Visiting Thilo Frank

How do you set yourself up as an artist? And what does it look like where the works are created?

Art as a lifeline 

In a time of crises and imminent war, art and culture can also play an important role. Because by creating or engaging in art and culture, communities can sprout, and this often helps people to hold on to life. At the same time, art can bring out the middle tones when polarization is imminent, finds Kathrin Maurer, professor at SDU and Fellow at the Nordic Humanities Center.

New issue of Fagbladet Biledkunstneren

The new issue focuses on, among other things, artist-run exhibition spaces, art in a time of crisis, and the work of an arts council, which focuses on quality, community, and education, but often loses sight of when the work is revealed.

Visual artists' exhibition fees get an important and much-needed boost

Artists, museums and art galleries are now joining forces to significantly improve artists' conditions. In a joint agreement that will come into effect on April 1, 2026, the recommended minimum rate for exhibition fees will be increased by 40 percent over the next four years.

Board seminar with focus on artist economics

The Democracy Rally in Copenhagen NV hosted a board seminar on Thursday last week, where the Irish scheme Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) was a central item on the agenda. The seminar ended with the artist duo Hesselholdt & Mejlvang presenting their upcoming work - NV-Circle.

Gallery sales and artist VAT

The art media I DO ART has asked the head of the secretariat at BKF, Klaus Pedersen, and board member at Danske Gallerier, Nils Stærk, how they each believe that artists and gallerists should distribute the money from gallery sales.

The foundations should invest directly in the liberal arts in 2026

If the foundations want a strong and vibrant art scene throughout the country, it requires courage to invest directly in those who create art, writes Marie Thams, representative of the Danish Association of Visual Artists, in a debate contribution in Altinget Kultur today.

Municipal conference with a focus on nature, well-being and community

On Thursday, February 5, 2026, BKF gathered artists and municipal stakeholders at Kunstmuseum Brandts in Odense for this year's Art in the Municipality conference.

The art of the future is made of sugar, gold nuggets and oyster shells

Visual artists have a responsibility to use less plastic, acrylic and other CO2-polluting and toxic materials, says visual artist Malene Bang. She is an associate professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and heads the academy's laboratory for plastics and sustainable materials. Here, she teaches visual arts students and conducts research into sponges as a supporting material.

New member – Ingunn Fjola Ingthorsdottir

Fortunately, the Danish Association of Visual Artists is constantly gaining new members. In each issue, the Danish Visual Artists presents one of them.

Visiting the artist's workshop

How does one furnish oneself as an artist? And what does it look like where the works are created? The professional magazine Billedkunstneren has visited visual artist Annette Sjølund in Stevns.

The artist colony in BKF's Painter's House in Sønderho

In the new season of the Artists' Colony, the six artists have gone to Fanø, where Leif Sylvester has chosen to work in BKF's artist residence.