Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967, Denmark) is an Icelandic-Danish artist who transforms natural elements into immersive spectacles and striking visual landscape art. His works and installations reflect on our evolving relationship to, and considerable impact on, the natural world. He co-creates with a chosen environment—within the walls of an art space or far beyond them—enhancing the relationship between audience and space, individual and collective experience. In his seminal transformation of the Tate Modern in 2003, The Weather Project uses light and mist to recreate atmosphere in the cavernous Turbine Hall exhibition space. He moves beyond the confines of internal space with his outdoor land art such as Green River, a project carried out in various cities between 1998 and 2001. With these events, he navigates how art is instrumental to defining the larger world—and transforming it through action.

Olafur Eliasson grew up in Iceland and Denmark and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1995, he moved to Berlin and founded Studio Olafur Eliasson, a team composed of many moving parts and members who work to carry out Eliasson’s visions. He has realized these visions across the globe, and has been featured in a number of notable platforms such as the 50th Venice Biennale, Museum of Modern Art (New York) and Red Brick Art Museum (Beijing), as well as numerous projects in public spaces. He currently lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.

Related Works

• Olafur Eliasson's work is often tied to the ephemeral works of the Light and Space artists. James Turrell is the most prominent member of this loosely affiliated movement, and like Eliasson, he is a master of shifting perceptions. View his work.
• In the collection of our sister gallery, form & concept, Matthew Mullins alters perspectives on the passage of time through a series of deep blue pinhole photographs. View his work.