RAGNAR KJARTANSSON

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

SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES 

2022

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen, Volkstheater Wien, Vienna, Austria 

Emotional Landscapes, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

The Sky in a Room, St Mary Magdalene Church, Tanworth-in-Arden, England (forthcoming)

Theater Spektakel 2022, Saffa Island, Zürich, Switzerland  (forthcoming)

2021

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

Ragnar Kjartansson: Sumarnótt, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

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

2020

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

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

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

2019

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

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

The Visitors, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland

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

Scheize – Liebe – Sehnsucht, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

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

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

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

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

Figures in Landscape, i8 Gallery, Iceland

2018

Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy, Women’s Building, San Francisco, California, USA

Krieg (War), National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

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

S.S. Hangover, The Contemporary, Austin, USA

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

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH

2017

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

Raw Salon: Ein Rohspiel, Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany

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

2016–2017

Ragnar Kjartansson, Barbican, London, UK;Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA

2016

The Visitors, The Frist Center, Nashville, USA

Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA

Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York, USA

Ragnar Kjartansson, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kaupmannahöfn, Denmark

The Visitors, Le Printemps de septembre, Toulouse, France

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

Architecture and Morality, cca, Tel Aviv, Israel

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

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

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

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

2015–2016

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

2015

The Visitors, The Vinyl Factory, London, UK

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

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

The Fall, Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, Germany

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

Song, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Me and My Mother, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland

The End, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Australia

The Visitors, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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

The Visitors and The Man, John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Australia

2014–2015

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

2014

The End – Rocky Mountains, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada

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

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

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

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

The Visitors, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA

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

The Visitors, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

2013–2014

The Visitors, Kling & Bang Gallerí, Reykjavík, Iceland

The Visitors, Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy

2013

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

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

The Visitors, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria

The End, Szene Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

The Visitors, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA

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

2012

The End, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada

The Visitors, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland

2011–2012

Song, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

2011

Endless Longing, Eternal Return, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany

Bliss, Performa 11, New York, USA

The Man, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin, Texas, USA

Ragnar Kjartansson, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland

Take Me Here by the Dishwasher: Memorial for a Marriage, bawag p.s.k. Contemporary, Vienna, Austria

2010

The End, Hafnarborg—Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, Hafnarfjörður, Iceland

Me and My Mother, ex3 Contemporary Art Center, Florence, Italy 

Studio: The Night—Eroticism, Folköl, Melancholia, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA

The End, Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada

2009

The End, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021

H2H, Athens, Greece

Eternal Recurrence, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

2020

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

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

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

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

2019

Happy !, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA 

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

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

2018-2019 

Allting föreställer. Ingenting är., Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden

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, Viena, Austria

Nordic Views, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen, Denmark

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

Raleigh, USA

2017-2018 

Commissions from Performa’s Archives, Whitechapel Gallery, London, England

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

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

2017

Soundtracks, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

The Voice, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea

Opnun, Kling og Bang, Reykjavik, Iceland

Nordic Matters, Southbank Centre, London, U.K

2016

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

Reading Prison, Art Angel, Reading, U.K 

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

I See a Darkness, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

Illumination, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

Auf den Schultern von Giganten, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany

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

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

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

2015–2017

Sound in Motion, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

2015–2016

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

Inaugural installation, The Broad, Los Angeles, California, USA

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

2015

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

Falling Fictions, me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany

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

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

An Imprecise Science, Artspace, Woolloomooloo, Australia

MusicNOW Festival, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

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

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

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

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

Saga: Narrative Art, Listasafn Islands, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

Überschönheit, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria

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

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

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

2014–2015

Artes Mundi 6, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales, uk

2014

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

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

Manifesta 10, Vitebsk Station, St. Petersburg, Russia

Rolling Snowball 5, Chinese European Art Center, Djúpivogur, Iceland

Score, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Your Compound View, Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland

Island: Wenn Bilder erzählen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany

All Together Now, Nuit Blanche, Hart House, Toronto, Canada

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

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

2013

Göteborg Biennial, with Andjeas Ejiksson, Stora Teatren, Gothenburg, Sweden

Towada Art Festival at Towada Art Centre, Japan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sequences VI Real Time Art Festival, Reykjavík

2012

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

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

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

True Stories, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

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

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

Discussing Metamodernism, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin, Germany

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

2011

A Strange Affinity to the Beautiful and the Dreadful, Hendershot Gallery, New York, USA

Meer Light, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands

Prospect.2, Prospect New Orleans, New Orleans, USA

The Garden of Forking Paths, Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland

iRonic, Die feinsinnige Ironie der Kunst, Kunstparlais Erlangen, Germany

Figura cuncta videntis (the all-seeing eye) / Homage to Christoph Schlingensief, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria

2010

Scene Shifts, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

New Frontier, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, USA

Twenty Five, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA

Nordens U-land?, Isländsk konst i kristid, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden

2009

Performa 09, with Alterazioni Video, Performance Space 122, New York, USA

The Reach of Realism, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, USA

Lífródur, Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjörður, Iceland

PUBLIC ARTWORKS

This Must Be the Place, permanent installation, Bergen Airport, Bergen, Norway

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Cardiff, Wales

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

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, AZ

Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo,Turin, Italy

Glenstone, Potomac, MD

Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, USA

Haudenschild Collection, La Jolla, CA

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

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark

McEvoy Foundation of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

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

Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ

Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland

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

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The Broad, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland

The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria

University of Copenhagen Maersk Tower, Copenhagen, Denmark

V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, Russia

AWARDS

2016

Reykjavik City Artist, Reykjavik, Iceland

2015

Richard Serra Award, The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland  

Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award, 
St Petersburg, Russia

The Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award, Artes Mundi, Cardiff, Wales, for The Visitors

2012

Icelandic Visual Art Awards, Akureyri Art Museum, 
Akureyri, Iceland

2011

Malcolm McLaren Award at Performa 11, New York, 
USA, for Bliss

2006

Hlustendaverðlaun fm957, Reykjavík, Iceland

MUSIC

Ongoing

All Star Band, Bel-Air Glamour Records

2005

Trabant – Emotional, Southern Fried Records

2003

The Funerals – Lordy, 12 tónar

2002

Trabant – Eva 3, music for a ballet, Ekka Dance Theater

2001

Trabant – Moment of Truth, Thule Musik, tmt 

The Funerals – Pathetic Me, Thule Musik, tmt

2000

Kanada – Kanada, Thule Musik, tmt

1996

Music for ‘Sirkús Skara Skrípó’, Loftkastalinn, Reykjavík, Iceland

1996–2008

Rassi Prump

1995

Kósý, Kósý Jól, Kisi-hljómplötur