Ditte Ejlerskov

Ditte Ejlerskov (born 1982) is a Danish contemporary artist. She was born in Frederikshavn, Denmark, and lives and works in Denmark. In 2017, her official portrait of Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Christiansborg was positively received by local critics.^[1][2][3]

Parts of Ejlerskovs artistic process consist of interaction with the Internet. Everything from written correspondence with email-scammers, paparazzi photographs downloaded from Google and contemporary music videos are brought into Ejlerskovs universe. With simultaneous disdain and fascination, Ejlerskov started to use Rihanna as a motif in her work. A few years ago, Ejlerskov was drawn to Barbados, Rihanna's home country, after an email correspondence with an Internet scammer. The scammer and Ejlerskov exchanged a series of emails, all of which was turned into a book and a film before she again started to focus on the painting. Ejlerskov's work investigate thematic and perceptual experiences pertaining to her generation, but also with references to post-colonial and post-feminist ideas. A large part of her work deals with contemporary pop-culture, where the purpose is to draw attention to what is happening in the intermediate positions, between the private and public space.^[4]

The main tool in Ditte Ejlerskov's practice is media literacy. Most of Ejlerskov's work is founded on interactions with the Internet; written correspondences with email-scammers from exotic parts of the world, translations of trashy paparazzi photos into large scale abstract paintings or detailed medieval-looking copperplate etchings based on imagery from a contemporary music video. Her abstract and representational paintings analyse and explore the potential of painting as medium itself, as well as they are tools for interpreting our contemporary reality.^[5][6][7][8]

Most of Ejlerskov's work has a feminist angle^[9][10][11] and questions the space between the personal and the public; suggesting an individual experience within a stream of collective consciousness. The work "About: The Blank Pages" is a collaboration with EvaMarie Lindahl and it highlights Taschen Basic Art – a book series that consists of 95 books of artists's biographies, 5 of which are of women artists.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Exhibitions

Ejlerskov has mainly exhibited at institutions in Sweden. For example, at Malmö Konsthall^[8] in Malmö, at Malmö Art Museum^[17] in Malmö, at Skissernas Museum in Lund,^[18] Uppsala Konstmuseum^[19] in Uppsala and at Konstakademin^[20] in Stockholm. She has also exhibited in Norway at Kristiansand Kunsthall in Kristiansand^[21] and at Stenersenmuseet in Oslo,^[22] at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning and Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Denmark, at CCA Andratx^[23] in Andratx, Spain, at Bonn Art Museum^[24] in Bonn, Germany, at Amos Anderson Art Museum^[25] in Helsinki, Finland and at Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston, Texas, US. Ejlerskov was nominated for Carnegie Art Award 2012.^[26]

Reviews

• Ditte Ejlerskov, un bon coup de Minaj Archived 15 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine (Libération) (in French)
• Whatever happened to the sisterhood (Mousse Magazine) (in English)
• Alongside Archived 2 July 2014 at archive.today (Houston Press) (in English)
• Taschen Under Fire (Kunstkritikk) (in English)
• Feminist history in the making Archived 8 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine (Culture Nordic) (in English)
• En lyckad konstkupp (Konstrelaterat) (in Swedish)
• Gesterna på parad (Sydsvenskan) (in Swedish)
• Lika genialt som trivialt (Sydsvenskan) (in Swedish)
• Abstraktion och realism kolliderar (Sydsvenskan) (in Swedish)
• Painting is hard core and non-specific (Helsingin Sanomat) (in Finnish)
• Afrikansk svindel forvandles til kunst (U-lands Nyt) (in Danish)