Exhibition Texts

Over the past fifteen years, I have written dozens of texts on contemporary art in Iceland, as well as art from elsewhere that touches on themes of animals and the environment. These have taken the form of essays in exhibition catalogues, artist profiles in anthologies, and interviews in monographs. I have also translated many texts of the same nature from Icelandic to English.

During my postgraduate studies in art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, my research dealt with a range of artistic engagements with the natural world. I completed my MA in 2007 and moved to Iceland – attracted by the country’s dynamic landscape, but truly drawn in by the vitality of its arts. While living in Reykjavík but also since moving to London in 2018, I have been commissioned to write for some of Iceland’s most prominent museums and galleries as well as for smaller institutions, various publications, and individual artists. It’s hard to pick favourites, but a recent exhibition text for a group show at the Factory in Hjalteryi serves as a sample (read the full text by clicking “Read on” below).

My knowledge of historical and contemporary international art was both reinforced and deepened through art history and theory courses I taught at the Iceland University of the Arts, the Reykjavík School of Visual Art, and the University of Iceland. In addition to my connections within the Icelandic art world, I am eager to continue building on my broader network. Through the major international and transdisciplinary conference Art in Translation – which I instigated and organised in Reykjavík in 2010, and which was also held in 2012 and 2014 – I formed new circles for myself and others that continue to expand. An essay commissioned by Oslo-based artist Tanja Thorjussen, whom I met at the conference in 2012, is another example of my recent arts writing (click “Read on”; that both samples here involve whales is merely a beautiful coincidence).