Born in Denmark in 1967, Eliasson’s parents separated when he was four years old, and his father returned to Iceland where he became a landscape painter. In 1989, Eliasson attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and, a year after graduating, secured his first solo show.
In 1995, he founded the Studio Olafur Eliasson, an experimental laboratory in Berlin where a team of about 90 people from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from technicians to art historians, manufacture ideas rather than things.
Eliasson is an artist committed to pushing the boundaries of space using materials such as lights, mirrors and water. Viewers play a major part in his work. In 1998, he used uranin, a dye used to detect plumbing leaks, to colour a Berlin river fluorescent green. In 2008, he created four huge manmade waterfalls in New York harbour.
His best-known work is The Weather Project, commissioned for the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern in 2003. Using a semi-circle of hundreds of yellow lamps and enormous mirrors he created a dazzling sunset and a vast ceiling that reflected the audience and the surroundings. Designed to put visitors back in touch with the deep sense of awe ancestors must have felt as they watched the sun rise and set each day, it was described by the art critic Richard Dorment as having ‘a terrifying beauty’.
Eliasson is also known for his Ice Watch series (2014–18), which saw him transport monumental blocks of glacial ice to cities around the world to raise awareness for climate change.
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Fivefold Eye
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Colour experiment no. 15 (large inside spiral)
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Schinkel Sonne (Schinkel Sun)
OLAFUR ELIASSON (DANISH, B. 1967)
Black Activity Sphere
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
The Landscape Series
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
The Inner Cave Series
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Endless quasi column (happy)
OLAFUR ELIASSON (NÉ EN 1967)
Colour vision kaleidoscope
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
The Landscape Series
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Square Sphere
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
The sunset series
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
The Glacier Mill Series
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Deep ocean glow
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Color Motoric Entrance
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Square Sphere
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Eye See You
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
National Career Lamp
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
The Moss Series
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
The Hekla Twilight Series
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Square Sphere
OLAFUR ELIASSON (b. 1967)
The broken stone series
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Untitled (Mountains)
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Crystal gate lamp
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Eye see you
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
The Hole Series
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Sunset Kaleidoscope
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Fivefold dodecahedron lamp
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Wall Eclipse
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
The Earthquake Series
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Eye see eye
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Spring puddle series
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Eye See You
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Campfire Lamp
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Super Star
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Eye see you
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Landscapes
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Your Intuitive Sky
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Trollakrokar Series
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Negative quasi bricks
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Stone Series
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Affection
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Shadow Lamp
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Neon ripple
Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967)
Thirteen purple to grey movie
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Trollakrokar series
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Campfire lamp
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Untitled (Hot Water)
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Your mutual appreciation compass
OLAFUR ELIASSON (B. 1967)
Iris lamp
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967)
Negative Quasi Bricks