Annika Ekdahl

Annika Ekdahl, born in 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden. is a textile artist who designs tapestries marrying Renaissance and Baroque practice with modern technices, creating large-scale works in her own contemporary style. She has exhibited in Europe and Austrailia and was the 2013 Nordic Textile Awardee. She obtained a master's degree in textile art in 1994 from the HDK School of Design and Crafts of the University of Gothenburg. She was a lecturer at Blekinge Institute of Technology 2002-2008 and an adjunct professor at HDK 2008-2011. Ekdahls prefferred artform is tapestry design. Having studied Renaissance methods, she employs classical techniques to create large-scale works depicting people and situations from her own life. She weaves imagery of animals, people, places into her narrative designs - the working process continues during a year or more. She describes the process as much like writing a novel, weaving the story with traditional methods but utilizing a modern approach including digital techniques. During 2000 and 2006 she worked on five pieces creating a series called "The Baroque Party". Each of the pieces has now been purchased: the title piece "The Baroque Party" 2000, belongs to the Röhsska museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2013 Annika Ekdahl received the Nordic Award in Textiles, an honor that granted her not only a substantial monetary award, but also earned her a visiting profesorship at University of Gotenburg. The same year she was awarded with the prestigeous Prince Eugen Medal for her outstanding tapestries. 2015 she unvield the two tapestries "Follow Me. Shine"., and "Follow Me. Grow." about growth and developement. They are both installed at the University of Oslo.