Stranger Than Kindness – The Virtual Nick Cave Exhibition Opens Online

In 2020, The Royal Danish Library presented the critically acclaimed Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition – an unprecedented look into the creative world of musician, storyteller and cultural icon Nick Cave. Today it returns as a dynamic, interactive online experience available to audiences worldwide, with a new audio guide recorded by Nick Cave exclusively for the digital launch.

With more than 300 objects collected or created by Nick Cave through six decades of his creative and private life, brought together in large-scale installations, Stranger Than Kindness was an artwork in itself. Created for The Black Diamond of The Royal Danish Library, Denmark, with Cave as a co-curator and co-designer, the exhibition was an unorthodox fusion of biography, autobiography and fiction. Met with acclaim by audiences and media alike, it was named as one of the world’s must-see cultural events in 2020 by Time Out Magazine, and eventually travelled to Montreal, Canada where it opened at Galerie de la Maison du Festival in 2022.

The new virtual exhibition will allow online visitors around the world to access this unique experience via an ultra-high-resolution 3D version of its physical counterpart, allowing for a deeper engagement with the original content which includes extensive archive and newly created material including photographs, letters, artworks, objects, installations, audio and video.

The exclusive audio guide was recorded in 2025 as a conversation between Nick Cave and co-curator Christina Back, allowing audiences to navigate the exhibition freely accompanied by Nick’s own reflections on the exhibition and its contents. Visitors can also experience the original soundscapes composed for the spaces by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

The virtual exhibition is free to enter and can be accessed now at http://www.thenickcaveexhibition.com

THE VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

Stranger Than Kindness: The Virtual Nick Cave Exhibition was created in collaboration with MadPixel, a leading creator of digital exhibitions. MadPixel has previously worked with museums such as the Museo Nacional del Prado and Château de Versailles.

Stranger Than Kindness: The Virtual Nick Cave Exhibition is based on a super-high resolution (gigapixel) 3D scan of the original physical exhibition. Via MadPixel’s Second Canvas platform, the visitors can move freely around the 3D version of the exhibition, zoom in on objects and artworks in gigapixel quality, and explore the huge amount of content via new interactive storytelling methods.  

THE ORIGINAL EXHIBITION

The original Stranger Than Kindness exhibition was developed and designed by Christina Back, Royal Danish Library and Janine Barrand, Arts Centre Melbourne in collaboration with Nick Cave for The Black Diamond, Copenhagen I 2020. The exhibition was supported by main sponsor Gucci and the Danish foundation Beckett-Fonden

The creation of the Stranger Than Kindness: The Virtual Nick Cave Exhibition marks a new strategic focus for the Royal Danish Library’s cultural activities. With high-quality virtual exhibitions that emphasize spatial and sensory experiences in a digital format, the institution aims to broaden the reach of its projects, making the Library’s cultural events more accessible across geographic and social boundaries.

Elsewhere, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds recently announced their new live album Live God, the stunning testament to The Wild God Tour, which wowed audiences across the UK, Europe and North America in 2024 and ‘25. Across 18 live tracks, the album captures the wildly transcendent nature of those unforgettable shows, which were, in Nick Cave’s own words, “an antidote to despair.”

Due for release on 5 December, Live God is available to pre-order now on Premium Double Gatefold LP, Double CD and Digital. The first single ‘Wild God (Live God)’ is available to stream and download now HERE. Live God will be released on Bad Seed in partnership with Play It Again Sam.

Photo credit – Anders Sune Berg