Ida Ekblad, BALTIC, Gateshead

The Norwegian artist works across painting, sculpture and poetry, exploiting the chance element of working with found materials. Ekblad’s current exhibition at BALTIC, Gateshead, is her first solo presentation in the UK, and includes a selection of new and recent paintings and sculpture. The show centres upon a group of sculptures designed as a stage set for Constellations 2012, a play by British writer Nick Payne which explores the notion that everything you can imagine is simultaneously happening in a parallel universe. The set’s twisted metal, basketballs, fishing nets, flowers and large white gates guarded by alien figures inhabit the exhibition space.