DITTE EJLERSKOV
Ditte Ejlerskov is a painter who has extended her practice into many other medium. In recent year she has been cleansing her paintings from external elements and inspiration from contemporary culture. She has been focusing on the more formal aspects of painting and the potential spiritual references her works may convey.
The notion of color therapy was discussed as early as in the year 1025 by the Persian physician and philosopher Avicenna. He wrote about the influence of the different light in colors and how it can be used in in treating a person’s lack of energy on different mental and physical levels. In Ejlerskov’s “Dream Gradient Paintings” the artist examines the impact of different colors on the human psyche, something that to herself became very evident in conjunction with the birth of her first child. Ejlerskov also noticed and studied how the two different hormones oxytocin and adrenaline work as each other’s opposites. The oxytocin, the so-called love hormone, is released in the female body during and after childbirth, as well as during intimate moments such as hugs and sex. The opposing hormone, the adrenaline, is the flight or fight hormone and works as the body’s survival hormone during stress and fear. These two hormones, the adrenaline, and the oxytocin, cannot exist in the body at the same time, which makes their relation a constant battle and a constant struggle between two extremes. Ejlerskov’s battling figures, inspired by the antique sculpture “The Wrestlers” in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, has in her world transformed into two female figures representing the two hormones battling the in the human body. The upper of the two wrestling women has become a special cult goddess in Ejlerskov’s oeuvre, appearing in sculptures, textile works, video, drawings, prints and NFTs.
Ditte Ejlerskov, born 1982 in Frederikshavn, lives and works in Skælskør, Denmark. Ditte Ejlerskov has studied at The Funen Art Academy in Odense, Cooper Union School of Art in New York and holds a MFA from Malmö Art Academy, Sweden, 2009.
Ditte Ejlerskov's works has been shown at Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen; Viborg Kunsthal; Centre of Contemporary Art, Andratx; Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg; Malmö Konsthall; Moderna Museet Malmö; Lunds konsthall; Ystad konstmuseum; Stenersenmuseet, Oslo; Borås konstmuseum; Uppsala konstmuseum; Kristiansand Kunsthall; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Nordic Contemporary Paris; CNEAI, Chatou; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Sommer & Kohl, Berlin; Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki; KUBE, Ålesund; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Galleria Bianconi, Milan; The Museum of Sketches, Lund; The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, among others.
Ditte Ejlerskov has received a multitude of grants from the Danish and Swedish Arts Council and private foundations, as well as received art residency at The Centre of Contemporary Art in Andratx, Asger Jorn’s Studio in Læsø, Tækker AIR Berlin and The Danish Arts Council’s residency at Cité des Arts in Paris, among others.
Ditte Ejlerskov’s work is in the permanent collection of Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Centre of Contemporary Art in Andratx; The Danish Arts Foundation; The Public Art Agency Sweden; Malmö Konstmuseum; Stockholms Läns Landsting; Umeå kommun; City of Lund Art Collection; Region Skåne; Sørlandet’s Museum of Art; and ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst in Ishøj, among others. Public art commissions include The Arthritis Hospital in Sønderborg; The Basic Health Care College, Denmark; Citizen M, Copenhagen; Kulturkvarteret, Kristianstad; and Det Musiske Hus, Frederikshavn. In 2017 Ditte Ejlerskov was commissioned by the National Parliament in Denmark to do an official portrait of Helle Thorning-Schmidt, then prime minister of Denmark.