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.

Ida Ekblad

Peder Lund is delighted to announce our summer exhibition, “ACTIVATED SLUDGE," featuring new works by Ida Ekblad. The exhibition will open on June 1 and run through August 31, 2024. 

An opening reception will be held on June 1 from 6 to 8 pm.

"Sludge is a thick wet substance. So is paint. So is glass. They are soupy materials. Liquid visuals. Color materialized. When in their sludgy state, I handle them. Activate them. Hyper-activate them. Hands-on. Fidget with fingers. Hand over my presence. Give them attention. Inattention. Attention. Inattention. Attentin. I forgot the o. Activation. Waste water. Decomposition. Bleed. All over. Goo. I must handle them before they dry, before they cool down. They cool. They dry. They harden."

For close to twenty years, Ida Ekblad (b. 1980, Oslo) has been one of the most original and influential artistic voices of her generation. Her artistic practice spans a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, performance, filmmaking, and poetry. Ekblad is interested in exploring “the slippery slope that runs from the good taste, the sharp style, the cutting edge aesthetics to the overboard propositions, the tasteless gestures, and a deep desperation.” Fittingly, one can recognize forms of high and low culture in her work, from manga figures to graffiti tags to decorative patterns from textiles, porcelain, and glass.

At the heart of "ACTIVATED SLUDGE", Ekblad’s second exhibition at the gallery, lies a collection of new sculptural works meticulously fashioned from glass – a medium previously uncharted by Ekblad. Collaborating with the renowned glass workshop in Murano, Italy, Berengo Studio, Ekblad has transcended her signature colorful, glossy aesthetic, which defines her renowned oil paintings. In this latest endeavor, she ventures into the ethereal realm of hand-blown glass, infusing her creations with a captivating interplay of light, form, and texture. Through this exploration, she invites viewers to immerse themselves in a new dimension of her artistic expression, where the boundaries between materiality and imagination blur.

Based in Oslo, Ekblad is a graduate of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2007) and the Mountain School of Arts in Los Angeles, USA (2008). She has participated in the Venice Biennale twice (2011, 2017), and her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at a variety of international institutions such as Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2021); Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, and Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2019); 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); and Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2010).

Ekblad’s work is featured in numerous important public and private collections globally, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway; British Museum, London, UK; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes, Bergen, Norway; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; and National Museum of Art, Design and Architecture, Oslo, Norway.

ACTIVATED SLUDGE

Works