Designmuseum Denmark in Copenhagen will open "LABORATORIUM: Kim Buck" on 13 November 2026, with the exhibition running until 9 May 2027. It is the fifth exhibition in LABORATORIUM, the museum's series of changing special exhibitions on innovative and exemplary contemporary design, and the museum describes it as the most comprehensive presentation of the goldsmith's work to date.
The series sets out to take visitors into the workshop of a designer or craftsperson, showing how a piece develops from the first idea to the finished object, and features both established and emerging names. In Buck's case, according to the museum, the aim is to present jewellery as a living field of inquiry.
Buck has worked with jewellery since 1979, when he began his training as a goldsmith. The museum stresses that craft remains the basis of everything he makes, even when he sets out to question tradition. His work asks what a piece of jewellery can be, what it means and how people live with it. The exhibition traces the ideas that have shaped his practice over several decades, combining earlier pieces with new work developed specifically for this presentation.
Curiosity and doubt are presented as driving forces. According to the museum, Buck's ideas, titles and concepts often take shape alongside techniques he refines through long periods of experiment, and these trials can lead to technical or aesthetic innovation. His series "Opblæst" ("Inflated") is cited as an example in which title, technique and meaning come together. Other works start from wordplay, shifts in language and familiar expressions, and the museum notes that his practice also responds to the times in which it was made, a theme the exhibition sets out to explore.
Claydies is among the other names the museum has presented under the LABORATORIUM banner.
