Olafur Eliasson is a visual artist who works in a wide range of media, including installation, painting, sculpture, photography and film. Since 1997, his critically acclaimed solo shows have appeared in major museums around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; SESC Belenzinho, SESC Pompeia, and Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo; Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; and the Venice Biennale.
In 2003, his hugely popular The weather project, at Tate Modern, London, was seen by more than two million people. Eliasson’s projects in public space include Green river, realised in various cities between 1998 and 2001; The New York City Waterfalls, 2008; the crystalline facades of Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre (in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects), 2005–2011, and Cirkelbroen, Copenhagen, 2015.
Established in 1995, his Berlin studio today numbers nearly ninety craftsmen, specialised technicians, architects, archivists, administrators, and cooks. They work with Eliasson to experiment, develop, and produce artworks and exhibitions, as well as to archive and communicate his work, digitally and in print. At Studio Olafur Eliasson, ways of touching the world are tested, not only through artworks and projects, but also through the continued development of publications and unique content for digital platforms and social media.
From 2009 to 2014, Eliasson led the Institut für Raumexperimente as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts.
In 2014, Eliasson and long-term collaborator Sebastian Behmann founded the international office for art and architecture Studio Other Spaces to focus on interdisciplinary and experimental building projects and works in public space.
Since 2012, Eliasson has directed the social business Little Sun, together with engineer Frederik Ottesen, which produces and distributes solar lamps and mobile chargers for use in off-grid communities.
Eliasson lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.
Honorary RA
Born: 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Elected Hon RA: 9 March 2016
Gender: Male
Contact information:
Twitter: @olafureliasson
Instagram: @studioolafureliasson
Facebook: @studioolafureliasson
Preferred media: Sculpture and Installation art
Olafur Eliasson Hon RA
2016–17 Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, September–February
2016 Palace of Versailles, June–November
Nothingness is not nothing at all, Long Museum, Shanghai
2015–16 Baroque Baroque, The Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Vienna
2015 Verklighetsmaskiner, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
2014–15 Contact, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
2014 Riverbed, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Turner colour experiments, Tate Britain, London
Little Sun, Tate Modern, London
Innen Stadt Aussen (Inner City Out), Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
Your chance encounter, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Your star, Stockholm City Hall, 2015
Cirkelbroen, Copenhagen, 2015
Ice Watch, Place du Panthéon, Paris, 2015; City Hall Square, Copenhagen, 2014
Facade for Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre, 2011
The parliament of reality, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 2009
The New York City Waterfalls, New York City, 2008
Green river, Tokyo, 2001; Stockholm, 2000; Los Angeles, 1999; Iceland, 1998
Public collections
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo
The Art Institute of Chicago
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Studio Olafur Eliasson: Unspoken Spaces, London: Thames & Hudson, 2016
Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen, London and New York: Phaidon, 2016
Olafur Eliasson: Turning Thinking into Doing into Art; Four Lectures in Addis Ababa. Berlin: Institut für Raumexperimente, 2015
Verklighetsmaskiner / Reality Machines, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 2015
Olafur Eliasson: Baroque Baroque, Vienna: Belvedere; Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2015
Olafur Eliasson: Contact, Paris: Flammarion, 2014
Olafur Eliasson: Contact is Content, Berlin: Distanz Verlag, 2014
Olafur Eliasson: Riverbed, Humlebaek, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2014
Olafur Eliasson: Never Tired of Looking at Each Other – Only the Mountain and I, London: Koenig Books, 2012
Olafur Eliasson: Your body of work, São Paulo: Edições SESC SP and Associaçao Cultural Videobrasil, 2011
Olafur Eliasson: Innen Stadt Aussen, Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König; Berlin: Martin-Gropius-Bau, 2010
Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia, Cologne: Taschen, 2008
Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson, San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; London: Thames & Hudson, 2007
The Goose Lake Trail (Southern Route): A Road Conversation between Olafur Eliasson and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2006