Widely heralded as one of the most important artists of his generation, Olafur Eliasson nimbly merges art, science, and natural phenomena to create extraordinary multisensory experiences.

Challenging the passive nature of traditional art-viewing, he engages the observer as an active participant, using tangible elements such as temperature, moisture, aroma, and light to generate physical sensations.

The works assembled for this presentation - the first U.S. survey of this Icelandic artist's oeuvre - date from 1993 to the present and reflect all facets of his creative practice. Encompassing sculpture, photography, and large-scale immersive installations - including a newly commissioned kaleidoscopic tunnel that envelops the Museum's steel truss bridge - these projects are intentionally simple in construction but thrilling to behold, sparking profound, visceral reactions designed to heighten one's experience of the everyday.

Eliasson was born in 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and trained at Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy of Art. Examples of his work reside in major worldwide collections, including those of SFMOMA; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Deste Foundation, Athens; and the Tate Modern, London. His recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; the Malmö Konsthall, Sweden; the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; and the Kunsthaus Zug, Switzerland. Eliasson, who represented Denmark at the 2003 Venice Biennale, oversees a laboratory/studio in Berlin and divides his time between Berlin and Copenhagen.

"Take your time: Olafur Eliasson" will be on view at SFMOMA from September 8, 2007, through February 24, 2008; it then will travel to the Museum of Modern Art, New York (April 20-June 30, 2008); and the Dallas Museum of Art (November 9, 2008-March 15, 2009)