Ragnar Kjartansson

Ragnar Kjartansson lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland. He studied at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Kjartansson has exhibited widely around Europe and the US, most recently at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Center in Washington DC and at The Barbican Centre, London. The history of film, music, theatre, visual culture and literature finds its way into his video installations, durational performances, drawing and painting. Pretending and staging become key tools in the artist's attempt to convey sincere emotion and offering a genuine experience to the audience. Kjartansson's playful work is full of unique moments where a conflict of the dramatic and the banal culminates in a memorable way.