Ida Ekblad. Melted Snow

In 500 pages with 398 illustrations, three essays and a conversation with the artist, this long-awaited first monograph on the work of Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad introduces her extensive oeuvre and documents her career from 2007 to 2021, focusing on her art and how she continually challenges it through her own exhibitions. With contributions by Daniel Baumann, Stian Grøgaard, Martha Kirszenbaum and Agnes Moraux.

Ida Ekblad lives in Oslo. She is a painter, sculptor, publisher, music producer, curator, and designer. She also writes. Her sources of inspiration include folk art, fashion, garbage, Samuel Beckett, youth culture, the natural forces of the elements, Gena Rowlands, traditional crafts, and so on. Everyday life is central to her work-as an imposition, but also conveying grace; as a voracious monster and a source of happiness; as a disaster and a glimmer of hope-for in Ekblad's view, everything is full of promise, including art.
Melted Snow, published three years after Ekblad's exhibition FRA ÅRE TIL OVN at Kunsthalle Zürich, is a lavish and riveting collection of works and exhibitions from 2007-2021, accompanied by newly commissioned texts and a conversation between the artist and Agnes Moraux. "Mess can be confusing to deal with," Ekblad concedes, "but mess is never out of focus."