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Dear ,
 A New Year newsletter in March? Yes – the world is a mess. An American president, a dead cat, and gallery events keep competing for our attention. But here is a tour de force through 2025 – with talking sculptures, happenings, climate conferences, casting courses, awards and much more. Finally we take a short look into the rest of 2026.
Enjoy the reading.
 New (and talking) Galschiøt sculptures — and a lot of TrumpWe started 2025 by attaching our smoking Statue of Liberty sculpture (Freedom to Pollute) behind a car to exhibit at the a UN University's climate conference in Dresden, Germany. Here we also presented the sculpture Survival of the Fattest (which had just been at COP30 in Baku) and handed out small 3D-printed statues. Some of them had Trump heads – and they were almost grabbed out of our hands.
This inspired a new sculpture called The Orange Plague: a 2.5 meter tall sculpture of Trump sitting on a collapsing man. The sculpture quickly became one of our most talked-about works this year (more of this later in the newsletter).
 Commissioned and Aesthetic Sculptures: Our crazy happenings are financed through the making of a variety of small and large sculptures. Some of several large sculptures that we completed in 2025 was.
 Our sculptures started talking...: First the B&W worker sculpture in Copenhagen began telling its story (listen here). Later our Hans Christian Andersen statue started speaking as well. Actually the statues got a little help from the organization Talking Statues. It is a great addition to our permanent sculptures – many of which have quite a lot to say. More sculptures will get a voice in the future. We are already working on a monologue for The Mother (photo - right side), which will be unveiled later this year.
Trump everywhere… (sigh): In November, Galleri Galschiøt sent an activist team to COP30 in Brazil with our new Trump sculpture The Orange Plague and 6,000 mini figures.
Later the sculpture appeared at the Stand With Greenland demonstration in Copenhagen and at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
 At all events thousands of small 3D-printed Trump figures were handed out as protest symbols against Trump's attacks on the (imperfect but functioning) rules-based international order and his threats and bullying tactics — something we believe people must stand up against together.During the year we printed and distributed 12,000 small Trump figures. Today they can be found in private homes, political offices and shop windows in many countries around the world. Denmark’s Minister for Climate, Lars Aagaard, even asked us to send him a stack of them, and they can now be seen in his office.
The sculpture also spread widely on social media. Americans in particular seem to love it, and it has gone viral several times — for example receiving 500,000 likes in The Times.
The Pillar of Shame: "With a Great Sculptures comes Great Responsability"
 Creating socially relevant sculptures sometimes comes with a certain responsibility — especially in the case of the Pillar of Shame in Hong Kong. Since China took control of the city, the sculpture has become a symbol for people who have lost their democracy and civil freedoms.As every year since the sculpture was first installed in 1997, we sent out newsletters on June 4th, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, to a very large network of human-rights organizations, Hong Kong citizens, Chinese students and others. The newsletter includes extensive information about the massacre and a large collection of documentation proving that it happened (which, incredibly, some people believe it did not).
Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities have removed the sculpture and are using it as evidence in a legal case against the democratic movement Hong Kong Alliance, which since 1997 has taken care of the sculpture. Today the legal system in Hong Kong is fully politicized. For example, Galschiøt is not allowed to testify in the case as a foreign witness. Therefore, in January an alternative fair trial was organized in the United States, where Galschiøt was invited to give Video testimony in defense of democracy activist Chow Hang-tung. (see Video or text as pdf).
In Denmark we also the Pillar of Shame in Copenhagen during the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, where political leaders and democracy advocates from around the world gathered to discuss democracy and civil rights. Participants could also take home a small 3D-printed Pillar of Shame.
Life at the work Studio 'Gallery Galschiøt' in DenmarkAll of our sculptures are modeled and cast at Galleri Galschiøt in Odense, Denmark. It is a combined workshop, cultural venue and gallery/museum that visitors can freely explore. In 2025 we welcomed 26,000 visitors, which is actually more than many museums receive. But then again, we also offer free coffee and free entrance, and not many places can boast that. Live
During the year we hosted international exhibitions, music performances from around the world, workshops on personal development, and our monthly bronze-casting courses. We also run a shop selling both small and large sculptures — which helps finance the larger art happenings we organize around the world.
If you live faraway you can take a digital tour at the Gallery here
 Visiting Artists from Mexico and Taiwan: We hosted a group of artists from Taiwan, who spent several weeks working in the workshop and creating an exhibition about Taiwanese art, culture and freedom of expression under the title Imagination Taiwan. At the same time the Mexican artist Rey Morales lived and worked in the workshop for more than three months, producing a series of paintings that were later presented in a special exhibition at the gallery. Concerts from far north and down south: On the music front we hosted a very special collaboration between three Inuit music groups: Inuanima (Denmark), Uummannaq Kids (Greenland) and Pamyua (Alaska). All three are well-known names in the lively Inuit music scene, and together they created a fantastic concert at the gallery. Later Greenland and Mexico joined forces again when the Mexican band BOLA and the great Greenlandic singer Rasmus Lyberth turned the gallery into a joyful musical celebration.Self-reflection and modern witches: In November visitors could experience TRE (Trauma Release Exercises) and try the exercises themselves. We will continue offering more TRE sessions in the coming year. Later Asta Wellejus gave a talk about modern witchcraft — about connecting with nature, talking to trees, foraging and following the rhythms of the seasons.
Bronze casting courses: During the year we held 12 five-day bronze casting courses in our workshop. Participants could explore their creativity and see their wax sculptures transformed into bronze using the traditional lost-wax technique.  And yes… many Trump mini-figures: At the gallery we also sold many thousands of 3D-printed Trump figures. The income helps us finance new art happenings where the figures are distributed as protest symbols. Awards and statuettes
Besides large sculptures we also produced art awards for several organizations honoring important achievements in very different fields such as Amnesty International Media Award and for PAMO – the Danish Melanoma Patient Association. In total we created 13 awards during the year.
Looking ahead in 2026
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