Lene Adler Petersen (born January 1944 in Aarhus, DK) is a Danish artist. Her artistic practice is characterized through a continuous collecting, sorting and mixing process of media and techniques and includes happenings and performance art as well as painting, ceramics, drawings, printmaking and installations, film and photography.
Lene Adler Petersen was educated at Det Jyske Kunstakademi 1964-66 and The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts 1968-69. Adler Petersen stems from a generation of Danish artists who came to visibility in the 1960s through performance art, installation art and film.
Lene Adler Petersen´s interest in collecting and sorting play a crucial role in her diverse artistic expressions. Her political conceptual work is characterized by an investigation into the contemporary representations of women. Lene Adler Pedersens early work "Uddrivelsen fra templet, nøgen kvindelig Kristus, d. 29. maj, kl. 15.50, 1969, Børsen" is a performance made together with artist Bjørn Nørgaard. In the performance she walked naked with a cross through the Copenhagen Stock Exchange.
By the time she completed her study of visual arts at the Royal Danish Academy, she was already part of the experimental art scene in Copenhagen formed around . During that period she worked primarily as filmmaker, painter and a collage artist besides engaging and contributing to the collaborative work in the Danish art community. Throughout her life Lene Adler Petersen has been involved in several artist groups as ABCinema, Eks-skolens trykkeri, Tidskriftet Kvinder and Arme and Ben. She has been a member of the Danish artists association Kammeraterne since 1995.
Since the 1960s Adler Petersen has created a rich collection of drawings. She has significantly influenced a generation of younger Danish artists by making way for the making of conceptual and feminist art in Scandinavia. Her interests in creativity, the role of subjectivity and personal history form a unique artistic position that challenges conventional paradigmas of gender, female representation and artistic production.
Lene Adler Pedersen is married to the artist Bjørn Nørgaard.