Icelandic Art Center — Out There

Snaebjornsdottir/Wilson: Human Relations, Socially Engaged Art & R.A.F.

In this episode, co-host Becky Forsythe @bforsythe and Þorhildur Tinna Sigurðardottir @tindilfaetta meet with collaborative art partnership Bryndis Snæbjörnsdottir and Mark Wilson @markwilson9539, or Snæbjörnsdottir/Wilson, whose 20-year interdisciplinary art practice explores and tests human and more-than-human relational behaviours within specific locations, in a context of environmental change. _ I þessum þætti eiga Becky Forsythe og Þorhildur Tinna i samtali við Bryndisi Snæbjörnsdottur og Mark Wilson. Þau, Bryndis og Mark, einnig þekkt undir listamannsnafninu Snæbjörnsdottir/Wilson, eru samstarfsaðilar i myndlist. I ruma tvo aratugi hafa þau rannsakað a þverfaglegan hatt samskiptamynstur og tengsl milli manna og þess sem gæti talist handan mannsins; dyra, plantna og landslags innan samhengis loftslagsbreytinga. Mark og Bryndis telja að rannsoknaraðferðir myndlistar með sinum sibreytilegu rannsoknaraðferðum, hafi einstöku hlutverki að gegna til þekkingarsöfnunar.

HK Rannversson on Out There podcast

In this podcast episode, Becky and Tinna speak with art historian and curator Heiðar Kári Rannversson about his work locally and internationally, and recently opened exhibitions Sóley Ragnarsdóttir, Queen of Hearts, and Þór Vigfússon, Numbers, places in Gerðarsafn. Heiðar Kári most recently he held a position at the Nordatlantens Brygge in Copenhagen from 2018 to 2022.  He has curated multiple shows across Iceland; The Living Art Museum, the National Gallery, and for the Icelandic Art Center. He is the current chairman of the Association of Art History and Theory in Iceland.

The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Museum: Summer exhibition & rethinking art outside of the cultural mainstream

In this episode of Icelandic Art Center’s Out there podcast we speak with artists Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir and Unnar Örn, who are board members at Safnasafnið, The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum. The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir in Svalbardseyri, in north Iceland. For 30 years the founders and board of the museum have focused their attention on collecting work, and often extensive bodies of works, by artists whose contributions to art have existed outside the cultural mainstream and collections, and have been considered folk, naïve or outsider artworks. We discuss the role of the museum, some of the language around categorizing art and artists, and the summer exhibitions, including; Dark Deeds and the Light of Hope and Aesthetics of Senses and Delights curated by Níels Hafstein, Source by Nína Óskarsdóttir and Who Came Through by Jasa Baka curated by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Sale by Arnar Herbertsson curated by Unnar Örn, Domestic Spirit by Svava Skúladóttir curated by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Deities by Bimala Dutta curated by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir and Assortments by Örn Karlsson curated by Níels Hafstein. There are over 13 exhibitions and hangs on display now so to read more about the variety visit the museum’s website.  The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir. For over 30 years the museum’s founders have been passionately committed to collecting artworks by artists who have hitherto been seen as outside the cultural mainstream, often also called naïve or outsider artists who have a real and direct connection to an original creative spirit; true, unspoiled and free. The museum is unique in Iceland, initially collecting artworks by all major con­temporary folk artists and autodidacts in Iceland, forming the core of the collection, while also gradually acquiring an excellent collection of art by professional artists, whose works cohere with exhibition and collection policies. It is of importance that all the artworks presented are on an equal footing, in exhibitions as well as the collec­tions. The core collection consists today of thousands of artworks and sketches by over 300 artists, dating from the mid­19th century to the present. https://safnasafnid.is/exhibitions-2024/ @gunnitune @unnar.orn at @safnasafnid @ninaoskarsdottir @jasa.baka  // Created and produced by the Icelandic Art Center, Out There brings co-hosts Becky Forsythe @beforsythe and Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir @tindilfaetta in conversation with artists, curators and art professionals at Borgarbókasafn. This episode is our last one, but surely more things to come from the Icelandic Art Centre in support of circulating critical engagement with contemporary art in Iceland, ongoing dialogues with artists and their works!   #OutTherePodcast #IcelandicArtCenter #IcelandicArt #IcelandicArtist #Iceland #VisualArt #ContemporaryArt #InspiredByIceland #IcelandicArt 

HK Rannversson: Queen of Hearts, Numbers, Places and Art Theory in Iceland

In this episode of Icelandic Art Center’s Out there podcast we spoke to the curator Heiðar Kári Rannversson who has been keeping busy with a few exhibitions recently opened locally in Iceland. We discuss the exhibition spring that has sprung in Iceland with a couple of exciting solo exhibitions having opened in Kling & Bang; Andri Björgvinsson and Tara & Silla and the National Gallery; Anna Rún Tryggvadóttir, Þóra Sigurðardóttir and the new iteration of Steina Vasulka’s Borealis Installation from 1993 now on display. Heiðar Kári @hkrannversson is an independent curator, art historian and most recently he held a position at the Nordatlantens Brygge in Kobenhavn 2018 - 2022.  He has curated multiple shows across Iceland; The Living Art Museum, the National Gallery and for the Icelandic Art Center. In the episode his most recent exhibitions and projects were discussed including:  Sóley Ragnarsdóttir @soleygendary is a Danish/Icelandic artist that lives and works in Thy, Denmark. Ragnarsdóttir has a sculptural approach to painting, and her works, painted and ornamented with both synthetic and organic materials, hover between figuration and abstraction. She mixes acrylic and epoxy with shells, amber and sea-sanded shards of glass on surfaces of wood, canvas and napkins. Her solo exhibition “Queen of Hearts” curated by HK  is now on display at Gerðarsafn. Þór Vigfússon @arslonga_djupivogur is an artist that lives and works in Iceland. He creates powerful objects with colour, texture, and reflection using prefabricated industrial materials. His deceptively simple works, primarily made of glass, plexiglass, mirrors, and Formica with monotone colour fields, push the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional works. Architecture and space play a vital role in their presentation.His solo exhibition “Numbers, Places” curated by HK is now on display at Gerðarsafn. Outside Looking In, Inside Looking Out is an exhibition that has been traveling around the world and will continue in the coming year with the stopa in Tokyo, Oslo and Paris this Autumn. The exhibition showcases works by established and emerging artists from Iceland. This exhibition project is a collaborative platform between the Icelandic Art Center, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Business Iceland, promoting visual art from Iceland abroad. This episode ends with the exhibition of the month segment which is dedicated to the one and only Venice Biennale and its 60th international art exhibition curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Special mentions from the main exhibition include Ahmed Umar’s work “Talitin, The Third” (2023) and the Mataaho Collective’s installation “Takapau” (2024). For the national pavilions Becky and Tinna briefly discussed the following; Pakui Hardware at the Lithuanian Pavilion, Eimear Walshe’s installation at Ireland at Venice, the Nigerian Pavilion with a star-studded artist roaster, Canadian Pavilion’s exhibition with Kapwani Kiwanga’s installation, Archie Moore’s installation at the Australian Pavilion curated by Ellie Buttrose and more! Listen in for a quick review of the cacophony at the Biennale. // Created and produced by the Icelandic Art Center, Out There brings co-hosts Becky Forsythe @beforsythe and Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir @tindilfaetta in conversation with artists, curators and art professionals at the bokasamlagid.

Amanda Riffo: On Elastic Stress, House of Purkinje, Chromatography & Rather Expansive

Artist Amanda Riffo joins us to discuss newly receiving the 2024 Icelandic Art Prize Artist of the Year award, exhibitions, projects, residencies and creative coincidences. Amanda received the award based on her exhibition House of Purkinje, her first major solo show, which was exhibited in The Living Art Museum in 2023 and curated by Sunna Ástþórsdóttir. Amanda’s natural storytelling takes us through various works and exhibitions, art encounters, soundtracks, some of her personal history and the ways she approaches thinking about and creating art. Amanda Riffo (b.1977) is a French-Chilean artist based in Reykjavik. After completing a Master of Arts at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, she later participated in exchange programs in Tokyo and Beirut. Her work has been shown in Europe, Japan, Iceland, Chile, Finland, Belgium and more. Exhibition projects in Iceland include her solo exhibition in Open (2018) and Skaftfell (Seyðisfjörður, 2019), as well as participation in the international art biennial Sequences Xl (2019). She is the current recipient of the Artist of the Year, Icelandic Art Prize and the Friend of Nýlo Artist for 2024. Amanda Riffo - House of Purkinje at the Living Art Museum  @amanda_riffo @nylistasafnid @icelandic_art_prize @gallery_port The episode's playlist by Amanda Riffo herself: * James Ferraro -individualism-album Human History 3 /2016** Robert Wyatt -at last I am free-album Nothing Can Stop Us /1982*** Ol dirty Bastard -Brooklyn Zoo -/1995