How does light shape our perception of a piece of furniture? And how can form direct, filter and shape light? This year’s installment of the Cabinetmaker’s Autumn Exhibition explores this.
The theme of SE26 is Light & Form, exploring how the two enter into a close dialogue and mutually affect each other. The exhibition is on display from 23 October to 13 December 2026 at Museum Ordrupgaard in the museum’s underground exhibition space, where the impact of light on form is clearly evident, both indoors and out.
In furniture design, light plays a crucial role for our perception of form. Furniture is not defined solely by its construction but also by how light moves over surfaces, highlighting details, creating depths or breaking up contours. In Light & Form, SE26 examines how light can be addressed as an integrated aspect of the expression, emphasizing the high-precision craftsmanship and the character of the materials.
Form is not just affected by light but guides, filters and shapes it in return. Several of the pieces in the exhibition actively use their construction, materials and surfaces to direct the light, create specific effects and strike a mood. Through openings, layers, transparency, reflections and shadow effects, form becomes a tool for controlling how light moves, refracts and is perceived in a space. Thus, light is not just something that illuminates the furniture but a separate material that is shaped and fashioned.
The furniture is displayed alongside Museum Ordrupgaard’s French impressionist art, where light plays a key role in portraying moods, moments and everyday life. The impressionists investigated the fleeting and sensuous qualities of light and its capacity to alter colours, forms and our perception of the world from one moment to the next. The topics of their art were often drawn from everyday life: people in motion, interiors, gardens and mundane situations. This interest in everyday life and sensuous qualities is also found in the furniture at SE26, where familiar functional objects are elevated through the maker’s craftsmanship, grasp of materials and treatment of light.
In both impressionism and furniture design, light becomes a means of shaping an atmosphere and creating a sense of presence. While the painters explored the impact of light on colours and atmosphere, designers examine the encounter between light and form, materials and surfaces, as use, function and aesthetic fuse into one, and even minor details and variations in light influence our perception of the furniture.
The juxtaposition opens a dialogue between art, design and craft and underscores the role of light as a force that influences form across the fields of art, design and architecture.
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition 2026
LIGHT & FORM
OPENING
23. October: 17.00 – 19.00
The evening continues: 20.00 – 22.00
Free admission. Drinks for sale.
EXHIBITION
24 Oct. – 13 Dec. 2026
ADDRESS
Vilvordevej 110, DK-2920 Charlottenlund
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition
(SE) is an association of designers, architects and manufacturers with the purpose of developing new furniture types and concepts characterized by excellence in function, craftsmanship and artistic expression. The association acts as a laboratory of innovation in furniture design.
The annual exhibitions are each based on a new theme and are presented in varying exhibition spaces, where the visual identity and exhibition design support the ambition of exploring and developing furniture from the perspectives of form, function and narrative.
The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition presents a wide range of Danish design, from classic and traditional to experimental and conceptual, created by the regular members and guest exhibitors.
Exhibitors
AMH x LUND + &Tradition
Andreas Lund + Søren Risvang
Anna Søgaard + Galleri Høstbo
Anne Boysen + Guldbjerg Maskinfabrik
Anne Dorthe Vester + NordSten
Boris Berlin + Made by Hand
Carlo Volf + Stål & Form
Christina Strand + Møbelsnedker Tihamér Szalay
Claus Landry Bjerre + Barlby Carlsson
Claydies
Ditte Hammerstrøm
Dögg Guðmundsdóttir + Isabella Rosendorf
Erling Christoffersen + Anton Balle
Troels Grum-Schwensen + FRILUND Møbler
Hans Sandgren Jakobsen
Jeremy Walton
Jonas Herman Pedersen
Jonas Lyndby Jensen
Jonas Trampedach + Viola Heyn-Johnsen
Karen Kjærgaard + Nanna Gram
+ Peter Skrzipczyk + Ambiente
Karin Carlander + Christian Street
Kevin Hviid
Krøyer-Sætter-Lassen + AUDO
Laura Bilde + Hydro
Leif Hagerup + Stål & Form
Lovorika Banovic + Zanat
Mia Lagerman
Niels Gammelgaard + Nick Rasmussen
Peter Johansen + Batch Productions
Philip Bro Ludvigsen + Anne Tejg Holm
+ Le Klint + Anton Balle
Poul Christiansen + Le Klint
Thomas Bentzen
Thomas E. Alken + Format Design
Thomas Sigsgaard + Onecollection
Troels Flensted
Willem Van der Beek + Mogens Toft
+ Stål & Form
Guest Exhibitors
August Ostrow
Matteo Fogale + Astep
Tom Chung
Zeyu Rong + 91-92
