Ida Ekblad was born in 1980 in Oslo, Norway, where she now lives and works. Using painting and sculpture interchangeably, Ekblad transforms motifs from various art historical references such as Norwegian fairy tales, craft techniques, graffiti, cartoons as well as childhood reminiscences.

Ekblad explains that her current painting is a result of trying to copy in oil what she previously achieved in her signature puff and plastisol works: the alluring plasticity, the tangible thickness of puff and plastisol while exploring new possibilities in painterly, colourist effects. In oil, there is another world of pigment. Ekblad’s works possess a unique vibrancy, and her expressive paintings pair painterly gravitas with a mischievous humour. A similar mindset can be found in her sculptures, poetically assembled from found waste or eclectically summoned from traditional materials such as marble, bronze or cast iron.

Ekblad has had solo exhibitions at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, among others.