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

In her practice she 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. Her work is layered in process, research and fieldwork where her approach is recognised through different notions of time, scale and narratives.

Þorgerður 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 artist-run spaces, projects, festivals and publications. From 2014 - 2018 she was the director of The Living Art Museum (NÝLÓ) in Reykjavík, an artist-run museum established in 1978. Together with artist Eva Ísleifsdóttir, she founded Staðir / Places, a biannual exhibition project in the Westfjords, Iceland (2014 - 2021).

In summer 2021, Þorgerður received a research permit to travel to Surtsey island, where she stayed for three days. Surtsey formed in an eruption from 1963-1967 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. Her stay on the island has highly influenced her artistic practice. In her publication, Island Fiction, Þorgerður weaves together artworks with essays that address the complex aspects of the existence, herstory and meaning of Surtsey.

Þorgerður is a part of the research project Relics of Nature - an Archaeology of Natural Heritage in the High North (2021 - 2026), 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 has an ongoing collaboration with artist Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir and Becky Forsythe curator, editor and researcher. Their research and exhibition project Unstable Ground is now open in Gerðarsafn Art Museum.

Recent exhibitions include Future Fragments, as part of Reykjavík Arts Festival, The National Museum of Iceland. (08.06 - 10.11.2024).
Sequences Art Festival XI. Can’t See in Kling and Bang, The Marshall House. 
A Meeting with Eldfell, group exhibition in Safnahúsið, Vestmannaeyjar. Curated by Vala Pálsdóttir & Ilana Halperin, with contribution from Gísli Pálsson, anthropologist.
Afield / Fjær, a three persons show with works by artists Diane Borsato and Geoffrey Hendricks (1931-2018), Skaftfell, Centre for visual art. Curated by Becky Forsythe.
Séstey / Hverfey, solo exhibition in Surtseyjarstofa, Westman islands, Iceland. Collaboration with the Environment Agency of Iceland.