Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir (b. 1985) is a visual artist based in Iceland
Þorgerður’s work explores transitions or evidence of changes that things and places undergo, whether encompassing a single moment, a human lifetime, or existing on a geological scale. Her practice is an active engagement with the environment she travels through, where turning points and moments of wonder are in the forefront.
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. 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 with the geoscience expedition. 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.
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.
Recent exhibtions and projects
2025
Untimely, exhibition with Kaisu Koivisto. Curated by Ásthildur Jónsdóttir. Gallerie Käytävä. Helsinki, Finland.
Sun Swallower. Group exhibition curated by Celia Harrison. Skaftfell, Centre for visual art, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
Island fiction, part II. Solo exhibition in Artierranti, Bologna, Italy. Curated by Irene Bernardi.
2024
Future Fragments, solo-exhibition in The National Museum of Iceland, as part of Reykjavík Arts Festival. Exhibition design in collaboration with Garðar Eyjólfsson.
Unstable Ground, together with Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir. Gerðarsafn, Kópavogur Art Museum. Curated by Becky Forsythe.
Organic Circuits. Árnesinga Art Museum. Curated by Kristín Scheving.
2023
A Meeting with Eldfell. Safnahúsið, Vestmannaeyjar. Group exhibition curated by Vala Pálsdóttir and Ilana Halperin, with contributions from Gísli Pálsson anthropologist.
Can’t See - Sequences Art Festival XI. Public sculpture commission for Surtsey 60th Anniversary, Kambarnir – Hellisheiði, South Iceland.
Soil – group exhibition in Kling and Bang gallery, Marshall House. Curated by Marika Agu, Maria Arusoo, Kaarin Kivirähk and Sten Ojavee. The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Tallinn, Estonia.
Little by Little. Overview exhibition with all the artists that contributed to and exhibited in Harbinger gallery 2014 – 2023.
2022
Afield / Fjær – a three persons show with artists Diane Borsato and Geoffrey Hendricks in Skaftfell, Centre for visual art in the East Iceland. Collaboration with Antikva ehf and The National Museum of Iceland. Curated by Becky Forsythe.
2021 - 2023
Séstey / Hverfey, solo exhibition in Surtseyjarstofa, Westman islands, Iceland. T
2019
Í kring, solo exhibitions in three locations: Ásmundarsalur, Brautarholt 2 and Kárastígur, 101 Reykjavík.
News from Nowhere. Solo exhibition in Listamenn gallery. Reykjavík.
Incidents (of Travel) http://incidents.kadist.org. A day long travelogue around the Reykjavík city area, tying together the three entry points to the city through different geological time, in conversation Becky Forsythe.
Þorgerður’s work explores transitions or evidence of changes that things and places undergo, whether encompassing a single moment, a human lifetime, or existing on a geological scale. Her practice is an active engagement with the environment she travels through, where turning points and moments of wonder are in the forefront.
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. 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 with the geoscience expedition. 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.
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.
Recent exhibtions and projects
2025
Untimely, exhibition with Kaisu Koivisto. Curated by Ásthildur Jónsdóttir. Gallerie Käytävä. Helsinki, Finland.
Sun Swallower. Group exhibition curated by Celia Harrison. Skaftfell, Centre for visual art, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
Island fiction, part II. Solo exhibition in Artierranti, Bologna, Italy. Curated by Irene Bernardi.
2024
Future Fragments, solo-exhibition in The National Museum of Iceland, as part of Reykjavík Arts Festival. Exhibition design in collaboration with Garðar Eyjólfsson.
Unstable Ground, together with Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir. Gerðarsafn, Kópavogur Art Museum. Curated by Becky Forsythe.
Organic Circuits. Árnesinga Art Museum. Curated by Kristín Scheving.
2023
A Meeting with Eldfell. Safnahúsið, Vestmannaeyjar. Group exhibition curated by Vala Pálsdóttir and Ilana Halperin, with contributions from Gísli Pálsson anthropologist.
Can’t See - Sequences Art Festival XI. Public sculpture commission for Surtsey 60th Anniversary, Kambarnir – Hellisheiði, South Iceland.
Soil – group exhibition in Kling and Bang gallery, Marshall House. Curated by Marika Agu, Maria Arusoo, Kaarin Kivirähk and Sten Ojavee. The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Tallinn, Estonia.
Little by Little. Overview exhibition with all the artists that contributed to and exhibited in Harbinger gallery 2014 – 2023.
2022
Afield / Fjær – a three persons show with artists Diane Borsato and Geoffrey Hendricks in Skaftfell, Centre for visual art in the East Iceland. Collaboration with Antikva ehf and The National Museum of Iceland. Curated by Becky Forsythe.
2021 - 2023
Séstey / Hverfey, solo exhibition in Surtseyjarstofa, Westman islands, Iceland. T
2019
Í kring, solo exhibitions in three locations: Ásmundarsalur, Brautarholt 2 and Kárastígur, 101 Reykjavík.
News from Nowhere. Solo exhibition in Listamenn gallery. Reykjavík.
Incidents (of Travel) http://incidents.kadist.org. A day long travelogue around the Reykjavík city area, tying together the three entry points to the city through different geological time, in conversation Becky Forsythe.
