Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson, b. 1967. Lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.

Throughout the past two and a half decades, Olafur Eliasson’s installations, paintings, photography, films, and public projects have served as tools for exploring the cognitive and cultural conditions that inform our perception. Ranging from immersive environments of color, light, and movement to installations that recontextualize natural phenomena, his work defies the notion of art as an autonomous object and instead positions itself as part of an exchange with the actively engaged visitor and her individualized experience. Described by the artist as “devices for the experience of reality,” his works and projects prompt a greater sense of awareness about the way we engage with and interpret the world.

Since the mid-1990s, the artist’s work has been at the center of numerous exhibitions and projects around the world. In 2003, Eliasson represented Denmark at the 50th Venice Biennale with The blind pavilion and, later that year, he opened the celebrated work The weather project at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The artist’s first retrospective opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2007 before traveling to the Museum of Modern Art and PS1 in New York; The Dallas Museum of Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, through 2010. Other significant solo exhibitions include Marciano Foundation, Los Angeles, CA (2018); Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China (2018); Graphische Sammlung – Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2018); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada (2017); Long Museum, Shanghai, China (2016); Olafur Eliasson: Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2016); The Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Vienna, Austria (2016); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2014); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2014); Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (2014); PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine (2011); 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil; Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin (2010); 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan (2009–2010); The New York City Waterfalls, a major public art project for the city of New York (2008); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (2005); Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst in Oslo (2004); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in France (2002); The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (2001); and Kunsthalle Basel (1997), among many others. The artist has also produced a number of permanent installations and site-specific works, including Golden State Warriors stadium in San Francisco, CA (2019); MIT Cambridge, MA (2018); Pappajohn Sculpture Park at the Des Moines Art Center (2013); ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark (2011); Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Iceland in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects (2011); The Israel Museum in Jerusalem (2010); Hara Museum ARC in Shibukawa, Japan (2009); and a permanent outdoor installation at Bard College, New York (2009). Eliasson’s work is represented in many prestigious collections worldwide, including those of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Tate Collection, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; The Art Institute of Chicago; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark; MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Dallas Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The artist has been granted numerous awards over the years, including the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT (2014), the Wolf Prize in Painting and Sculpture (2014), the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (2013) (with Henning Larsen Architects and Batterid), the Joan Miró Prize (2007), and the 3rd Benesse Prize (1999).