Peder Lund

Ida Ekblad (b. 1980, Norway) is one of the most recognized contemporary artists of her generation working today. Her artistic practice comprises a variety of mediums such as painting, sculpture, performance, filmmaking, and poetry. Her work is inspired by a multitude of sources and one can recognize sub-cultural and pop-cultural influences. Art historically, Ekblad’s oeuvre is influenced by a variety of artists such as Odilon Redon, Paula Modersohn Becker, Paul Thek, Harriet Backer, Edvard Munch, Florine Stettheimer, and Helen Frankenthaler. Her style is signified by a genre-crossing approach and incorporates, for example, the aesthetics of graffiti, manga culture, arts and crafts, old master paintings, deviant art, and meme culture. Ekblad’s practice is focused on our hyper-retinal culture which she tries to visually record and comprehend. “Whatever sense I find,” she says, “is primarily an aesthetic sense. In painting, sculpture, and via material twists and turns, I am striving to make a personal and decent pattern of what happens to come my way.” (Ida Ekblad, Artist Statement, “A mansion for all lovely forms,” 2018)

Ekblad lives and works in Oslo. She was educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2007) and at the Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles, USA (2008). She participated in the Venice Biennale (2011, 2017), as well as in numerous solo and group exhibitions; besides her most recent solo show in 2021 at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, her work was presented at a variety of institutions in solo exhibitions, among them in 2019 at Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland and Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany (2018); Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (2017); National Museum of Art, Design and Architecture, Oslo, Norway (2013); Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (2010); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2010). Group exhibitions that presented Ekblad works include shows at acclaimed institutions such as the Kunsthaus Zürich (2023-2024); Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2023); Zabludowics Collection, London (2023); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2022); Frac Normandie Caen, Caen (2021); The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design, Oslo (2020); National Museum, of Art, Architecture, and Design, Oslo (2018) Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2015); Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway (2014); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2013); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland (2013); Migros Museum in Zurich (2011); New Museum, New York, USA (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA (2008).

Major paintings, photographs, works on paper, and large-scale outdoor sculptures by the artist have been acquired by such institutions as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Hammer Museum, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthaus Zürich, the British Museum, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Museo Rufino Tamayo, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Kistefos Museum, KODE — Art Museums and Composer Homes, and other distinguished collections.