Mads Bryld

Forest of Marks

Eighteen is pleased to present

Forrest of Marks
A solo exhibition by Mads Bryld
October 2 – November 14, 2026

Dense woods encircle the bog. A primordial landscape, dinosaur soup, shaped by the slow, relentless cycles of nature. Eerily beautiful and alluring, it draws you in. It will swallow you.

Layers of organic material have settled heavily upon one another, constantly decomposing and regenerating. A landscape that breathes and smells, seemingly untouched, where time is measured on nature’s clock, while the terrain continues to work. A mundane transcendental dream scape.

Murky waters with shimmering surfaces. Mud, sand, plants, fungi, wood, animals, worms and insects, interconnected. Sunlight pierces the foliage, bouncing off the water and casting dancing waves onto the trees. An ephemeral palette, changing from dawn till dusk and with the seasons. The topography of bark: silky smooth, scared, cracked plateaus and deep canyons, changing with exposure and age. Roots forming intricate entangled communal weaves. Everything in constant motion, swirling slow-motion.

The bog lady brews at dawn. Parents tell their children, don’t go near, but we always do.

Forrest of Marks is an exhibition about the texture of memories, the traces landscapes leave on us, and the traces we carry with us. The bog, the exhibition’s protagonist, is a place where memory, matter and time overlap.

A black hole in the forest floor that mirrors the universe.

The point of departure for a Forest of Marks is Mads Bryld’s local bog — Utterslev Mose — a large, 200-hectare semi-natural wetland and public park area located six kilometres northwest of central Copenhagen. Originally an undeveloped swampy bog and part of Copenhagen’s historic fortification ring, it was re-engineered between 1939 and 1943 into its current park status. Bryld runs and walks in the area almost every day all year round. The exhibition comprises 10 oil paintings on canvas in various sizes created over the past year.

Text by Jesper Elg

Mads Bryld (b. 1991) lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is an architect by education and worked as a landscape architect for a leading studio in Copenhagen (2020–2025). Bryld’s work has been presented in recent solo exhibitions at Haricot Gallery, London (2026); JOHS, New York (2026); and V1 SALON (2025, 2024).

Forest of Marks is Mads Bryld's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.