Overview

Ragnar Kjartansson engages multiple artistic mediums, creating video installations, performances, drawings, and paintings that draw upon myriad historical and cultural references.  An underlying pathos and irony connect his works, with each deeply influenced by the comedy and tragedy of classical theater. The artist blurs the distinctions between mediums, approaching his painting practice as performance, likening his films to paintings, and his performances to sculpture. Throughout, Kjartansson conveys an interest in beauty and its banality, and he uses durational, repetitive performance as a form of exploration.

 

Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976) lives and works in Reykjavík. Major solo shows include exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Reykjavík Art Museum; the Barbican Centre, London; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Park, Washington D.C.; the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; De Pont Museum, Tilburg; and the Louisiana Museum for Modern Art, Humlebæk, among others. Kjartansson participated in The Encyclopedic Palace at the Venice Biennale in 2013, Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2014, and he represented Iceland at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The artist received the 2019 Ars Fennica Award, and was the recipient of the 2015 Artes Mundi’s Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award, and Performa’s 2011 Malcolm McLaren Award. Currently, Kjartansson's year-long solo exhibition, The Brown Period, is on view until 18 December 2025 at i8 Grandi, Reykjavík.

Works
Video
Exhibitions
Public Exhibitions
Press
Art Fairs
Biography

b. 1976 in Reykjavik

Lives and works in Reykjavik

 

EDUCATION

 

1997–2001

Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík, Iceland

 

2000

The Royal Academy, Stockholm, Sweden, exchange student

 

1996–1997

Hússtjórnarskólinn, Reykjavík, Iceland

 

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES 

 

2025

The Brown Period, i8 Grandi, Reykjavik 

 

2024

Death and the Children, IKOB Museum of Contemporary Art, Eupen

Mother and Child, Gin and Tonic, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Man, The Gund, Kenyon College, Gambier

 

2023

The Things You See Before the Curtain Hits the Floor, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City

Epic Waste of Love and Understanding, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk

não sofra mais, Santa Clara-a-Nova Monastery, Coimbra

The Visitors, Akureyri Art Museum, Akureyri

The Visitors, Esker Foundation, Calgary

The Visitors, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich

 

2022

There's a song in my heart and a hammer in my brain, Luhring Augustine, New York

Ragnar Kjartansson: Time Changes Everything, De Pont Museum, Amsterdam

Schmerz, Theater Spektakel, Saffa Island, Zürich

The Sky in a Room, St Mary Magdalene Church, Tanworth-in-Arden

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen, Volkstheater Wien, Vienna

Ragnar Kjartansson:Emotional Landscapes, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Underworld of Akureyri, Icelandic Art Center, Reykjavik

 

2021

Ragnar Kjartansson: Santa Barbara, GES-2 House of Culture, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow

Ragnar Kjartansson: Death is Elsewhere, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montréal

Ragnar Kjartansson: Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy,  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Ragnar Kjartansson: Sumarnótt, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Boston

 

2020

Ragnar Kjartansson: Death is Elsewhere, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, Boston

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Sky in the Room, Church of San Carlo al Lazzaretto, Milan

 

2019

Focus On: Ragnar Kjartansson, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

Ragnar Kjartansson: Scenes from Western Culture, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon

The Visitors, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki

Ragnar Kjartansson. The Man, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Cordoba

Scheize – Liebe – Sehnsucht, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart

Ragnar Kjartansson: A Lot of Sorrow, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, MFA The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Ragnar Kjartansson: Death Is Elsewhere, The Met Fifth Avenue, New York

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, Boston, Massachusetts

Figures in Landscape, i8 Gallery, Reykjavik

 

2018

Romantic Songs of the PatriarchyWomen’s Building, San Francisco, California

Krieg (War), National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavik

Ragnar Kjartansson: A Lot of Sorrow, Faurschou Foundation Beijing, Beijing

S.S. Hangover, The Contemporary, Austin

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Sky in a Room, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati

 

2017

Ragnar Kjartansson: God I feel so bad, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik

Raw Salon: Ein Rohspiel, Volksbühne, Berlin

No Tomorrow (with Margrét Bjarnadóttir) performed by the Icelandic Dance Company, London, and Reykjavik

 

2016

Ragnar Kjartansson, Barbican, LondonHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

The Visitors, The Frist Center, Nashville

Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine, New York

Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York

Ragnar Kjartansson, Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen

The Visitors, Le Printemps de septembre, Toulouse

A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and the National, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Architecture and Moralitycca, Tel Aviv

Krieg (War), Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, Berlin

The Visitors,University of Buffalo Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Woman in E, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan

Ragnar Kjartansson, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal

 

 

2015

Seul celui qui connaît le désir, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

The Visitors, The Vinyl Factory, London

A Lot of Sorrow, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

The End, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan

The Fall, Berliner Festspiele, Berlin

A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and The National,König Galerie, Berlin

Song, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Me and My Mother, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík

The End, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle

The Visitors, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires

The Visitors, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio

The Visitors and The Man, John Curtin Gallery, Perth

 

2014

Black Box: Ragnar Kjartansson, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.

The End – Rocky Mountains, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba

The Palace of the Summerland, Ragnar Kjartansson and Friends, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna

A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and The National, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York

Bjarni Bummer Listens to Take it Easy by the Eagles, Skúrinn, Reykjavík

Me, My Mother, My Father and I, New Museum, New York

The Visitors, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, Berlin

The Visitors, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao

 

2013

The Visitors, Kling & Bang Gallerí, Reykjavík

The Visitors, Hangar Bicocca, Milan

Ragnar Kjartansson, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio

A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and The National, MoMA PS1, New York

The Visitors, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna

The End, Szene Salzburg, Salzburg

The Visitors, Luhring Augustine, New York

Scandinavian Pain: Ragnar Kjartansson, Edvard Munch, Moderna Museet, Malmö

 

2012

The End, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto

The Visitors, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

2025

 

A partir d'elle, Fondation A, Brussels

Nightshade: The World in the Evening, Oakland University Art Gallery, Auburn Hills

Portraits from the ICA Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

 

2024 

Aesthetics of Senses and Delights, Safnasafnið: The Icealndic Folk and Outsider Art Museum, Akureyri

Anywhere Out of the World, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko

FuturePast, Ísafjörður Art Museum, Ísafjörður

Day for Night: New American Realism, Selections from the Tony and Elham Salame Collection, Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Luhring Augustine x MASA, MASA, Mexico City

 

2023

Kaleidoscope: Icelandic 21st Century Art, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavík

The Last of appaAnimal Builders, Edith Farnsworth House, Plano
Painting is Dead, Kunstpakhuset, Ikast
Reaching for the Stars: From Maurizio Cattelan to Lynette Yiadom BoakyeFondazione Palazzo

Strozzi, Florence

 

2021

H2H, Athens

Call/Response: The Gund Gallery Turns 10, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, GambierTo Moscow! To Moscow! To Moscow!, GES-2 House of Culture, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow

Eternal Recurrence, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik

The Pleasure Pavilion: A Series of Installations, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Plus One, Luhring Augustine, New York

 

2020

The Blue Peal of Bells, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan

AGAINandAGAINandAGAINand, MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna

Come Closer, Biennale Ve veci umeni / Matter of Art 2020 (VVUMOA), Prague City Gallery, Prague

Photography’s Last Century: The Collection of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Unique, Parkett Space, Zurich
Up to and Including Limits: After Carolee Schneemann, Muzeum Susch, Susch

 

2019

Happy !, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale

MOMENTUM 10 - The Emotional Exhibition, Galleri F 15, Moss

Nordic Impressions - Contemporary Art from Åland, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway & Sweden,  ASF + Scandinavia House, New York

 

2018-2019 

Allting föreställer. Ingenting är., Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle

Nordic Impressions: Art from Åland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, 1821-2017, Phillips Collection, Washington D.C

 

2018

Double Lives: Visual Artists Making Music, museum moderner kunst stiftung ludwig wien, Vienna

Nordic Views, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen

You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

 

2017-2018 

Commissions from Performa’s Archives, Whitechapel Gallery, London

La mère la mer, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco

Leonard Cohen: Une brèche en toute chose / A Crack in Everything, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal

 

2017

Soundtracks, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

The Voice, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul

Opnun, Kling og Bang, Reykjavik

Nordic Matters, Southbank Centre, London

 

2016

Dicker als Wasser: Konzepte des Familiären in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Kunstpalais & Stadtische Sammlung Erlangen

Reading Prison, Art Angel, Reading

Life Serial, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery – Columbia University, New York

I See a Darkness, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin

Illumination, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk

Auf den Schultern von Giganten, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz

Moving Image Department – 4th Chapter: The Rhetoric Of Time, Revisited, National Gallery Prague, Veletržní Palace, Prague

Collection on Display: Momentary Monuments, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich

Lines of Flight: Life Serial, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York
Spring Performance Festival, Kunstverein, Amsterdam; Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam

 

2015

Sound in Motion, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart

The Bauhaus #itsalldesign, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein; Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn

Inaugural installation, The Broad, Los Angeles, California

Saga. Iceland: Art and Narrative, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn

Drifting in Daylight: Art in Central Park, Creative Time and Central Park Conservancy, Central Park, New York

Falling Fictions, me Collectors Room, Berlin

Fireflies in the Night, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens

Framing Desire: Photography and Video, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas

An Imprecise Science, Artspace, Woolloomooloo

MusicNOW Festival, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

Listening, Baltic 39, Newcastle; The Bluecoat, Liverpool; Site Gallery, Sheffield; Art Exchange, Colchester

Piano Pieces – Pianos. Sounds. Art., Neue Residenz, Salzburg Museum, Salzburg

Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival of Music, Art and Conversation, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, Home Manchester, Manchester

Saga: Narrative Art, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik

Überschönheit, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg

 Und weg mit den Minuten. Dieter Roth und die Musik, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum fur Gegenwart, Berlin

Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Tokyo

A man walks into a bar… ., me Collectors Room Berlin, Berlin

 

2014

Artes Mundi 6, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales

High Performance: Time-Based Media Art since 1996 from the Julia Stoschek Collection, Rīgas Mākslas  Telpa, Riga

Imaginary Portraits: Prince Igor, Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, New York

Manifesta 10, Vitebsk Station, St. Petersburg

Rolling Snowball 5, Chinese European Art Center, Djúpivogur

Score, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo

Your Compound View, Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík

Island: Wenn Bilder erzählen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen

All Together Now, Nuit Blanche, Hart House, Toronto

Stanze/Rooms, Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin

Truly Flabby Preludes (For a Dog) 1/4: Pink Noise, La Maison Populaire, Montreuil

 

2013

Göteborg Biennial, with Andjeas Ejiksson, Stora Teatren, Gothenburg

Towada Art Festival at Towada Art Centre

Civilization: Monumental Materialism. Artists colony, MoMA PS1, New York

Deep Feelings: From Antiquity to Now, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria, Venice Biennale, Arsenale di Venezia, Venice

A Space called Public, part of Elmgreen & Dragset’s project of public artworks, Munich

Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopaedic Palace) 55th Venice Biennale, Venice

Trekk: Contemporary Currents in Icelandic Art Today, Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Forde

1.pers.sing.: The artist’s body between self-portrait and performance, b-05 Kunst-und Kulturzentrum Association e.V, Montabaur

Sequences VI Real Time Art Festival, Reykjavik

 

2012

I Wish this was a Song: Music in Contemporary Art, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Songs of space, time and lust, Ephemeropterae˜ XIV / XV+, tba21, Vienna

Á Ciel Ouvert - Le Nouveau Pleinairisme, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec

True Stories, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bliss, The National Theatre of Iceland as part of The Reykjavík Art Festival, Reykjavik

A House Full of Music: Strategies in Music and Art, Institute Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Darmstadt

Discussing Metamodernism, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin

It’s Not the End of the World, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin

 

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

 

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Cardiff, Wales

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The Broad Art Foundation, USA

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA

Center for Curatorial Studies – Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, USA

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

El Mirador Project, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, USA

Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo,Turin, Italy

Glenstone, Potomac, USA

Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, USA

Haudenschild Collection, La Jolla, USA

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C, USA

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark

McEvoy Foundation of the Arts, San Francisco, USA

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, Florida, USA

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium

Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warsaw, Poland

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA

Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria

University of Copenhagen Maersk Tower, Copenhagen, Denmark

V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, Russia