The company Artfacts currently rates Ólafur Elíasson as the ninth most successful of contemporary artists (and, at 41, by far the youngest of the first ten) so he should really need no introduction. He certainly doesn't in Europe where his installations and large-scale exhibitions have been drawing crowds in the last decade, most memorably perhaps his Weather Project at the Tate's Turbine Hall in London. It is only in the last year, however, that the full force of his work has been felt in the United States, starting with a retrospective exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition was then expanded to fill a large part of the MoMA in New York and its PS1 annex, in addition to which he has set up a series of waterfalls in the rivers around Manhattan in what is the city's largest and most expensive public art project to date.

Americans seem to take well to Ólafur and his unique mix of ephemera and sensation. Critics and journalists seem to appreciate both his art and his personal approach, even giving attention to personal details that rarely emerge in the European press. We at List were unaware, for example, that Ólafur had been a Scandinavian break-dancing champion until we read about it in the New York Times. His art has also had a close reading from critics and scholars and most seem to welcome his style of engaging and overwhelming the audience at the same time. "What a relief," begins New York Times critic Holland Cotter and continues to praise Ólafur for focusing on the audience and its experiences rather than making art primarily for the market. Like other American commentators, Holland sees the political side of Ólafur's work which tends to be overlooked or ignored when he exhibits in Europe.

The publishers Taschen have released a new book on Ólafur to coincide with his New York exhibitions. Measuring 30.8 x 39 cm and running to 528 pages it is one of the largest books produced about a living artist.