Nina Sten-Knudsen

Nina Sten-Knudsen (born 1957) is a Danish painter who played a central role in the Danish Wild Youth trend in the 1980s. She gained recognition from her participation in the 1982 exhibition Kniven på hovedet (Knife on the Head) held at Tranegården in Gentofte. More recently, her large landscapes raise existential questions of past and present, the merits of the modern world and the meaning of painting.

Her works explore basic existential themes of evil, past and present, the merits of the modern world and the meaning of painting. She has moved towards panoramic landscapes and cityscapes. Her Girl With a Knife (2007) first looks like a classical landscape but on closer examination it seems to consist of a number of fragments without any general perspective, bringing together past and present as well as the near and far. Since 2009, she has been working on a huge project, creating 130 images forming part of a narrative examining the origin of evil, each with a sometimes lengthy descriptive title.

In addition to a series of scholarships, in 2000 Sten-Knudsen was awarded the Eckersberg Medal.

Her daughter Maria Sten is a Danish actress, writer, director and beauty pageant titleholder.