Thea Margit Ekström was born in 1920 in Stockholm and died in 1988 in Stockholm. Thea Ekström studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Oscar Reutersvärd, though she remained largely self-taught, and several of her works are dedicated to Reutersvärd as her mentor. Her imagery is unmistakably her own, built from dense characters, symbols, and finely worked detail across oil on panel and ink painting.

Thea Ekström drew inspiration from Chinese ink painting, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and movements such as surrealism and imaginism. Her compositions function like carved surfaces or ritual objects, speaking directly through their layered signs and narrative fragments. The events and experiences of her life—traveling with Roma communities, ...