works

Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir (1985) is a visual artist based in Iceland.

In her practice Þorgerður considers various objects and phenomena that are connected to our understanding of and relation to the natural world as it meets, overlaps and is interpreted within human environments.

She graduated with a Master of Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art in 2013 and received BA in Fine Art from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2009. Alongside her art practice Þorgerður has contributed to various independent, artist-run projects, festivals and publications. From 2014 - 2018 she was the director of The Living Art Museum (NÝLÓ) in Reykjavík, artist-run museum established in 1978. Together with Eva Ísleifsdóttir, she founded Staðir / Places, a biannual exhibition project in the Westfjords, Iceland (2014 - 2021).

Þorgerður is a part of the research project Relics of Nature, an Archaeology of Natural Heritage in the High North (2021 - 2025), which aims to explore understandings and manifestations of natural heritage, with special focus on the High North and in the context of climate change. She is the first visual artist to receive a research permission to Surtsey island (erupt. 1963 - 1967) from The Environment Agency of Iceland. 

Publications 

Esseyja / Island Fiction (release date fall 2023)
Contributors: Becky Forsythe, Birna Lárusdóttir,
Guðbjörg R. Jóhannesdóttir, Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir &
Þóra Pétursdóttir. Designed by Elín Edda Þorsteinsdóttir.

Archive of Artists' Run Initiatives. (2019)
Co-editor and contributor.
Published by The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík.

Án titils / Untitled (2017)
Ólafur Lárusson (1951 - 2014). Co-editor and contributor.
Published by The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík.

Words Don’t Come Easy (2014)
Co-editor. Published by FUMF collective.

Trust us! We are artists (2011)
Exhibition archive and introduction of the artists involved in gallery Crymo 2009-2011. Editor and contributor. Published by Crymogea, Reykjavík. Iceland.