Ragnar Kjartansson
14 Jul - 04 Sep 2016
Ragnar Kjartansson
The Visitors, 2012
Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavík
© Elisabet Davids
The Visitors, 2012
Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavík
© Elisabet Davids
RAGNAR KJARTANSSON
14 July - 4 September 2016
‘One of the most celebrated performance artists anywhere’ New York Times
Bringing together live performance, music, film, painting, sculpture and drawing, this long overdue solo exhibition is the first in the UK to survey the work of the internationally acclaimed Icelandic artist, Ragnar Kjartansson.
Born into a family of acting professionals and having grown up backstage at the Reykjavik City Theatre, Kjartansson’s work combines his experience of stage traditions with experiments in repetition and endurance. Clichés and motifs of Western culture, romantic melancholy and even his own conception, provide the personal and often playful subject matter of the artist’s emotionally charged work. Having successfully represented Iceland at the 2009 Venice Biennale and participated in 2013 with standout works, Kjartansson is now at the cutting edge of contemporary performance art. The exhibition centres around the immersive and moving multi-channel video installation The Visitors (2012) and Take Me Here by the Dishwasher: Memorial for a Marriage (2011) a live performance full of romance and humour featuring ten troubadours singing for up to eight hours a day, every day for the duration.
Ragnar Kjartansson will present these spell-binding and multi-sensory experiences amongst a wide-ranging survey, perfectly-timed to shine a spotlight on one of the contemporary art world’s most exciting and evolving artists.
Exhibition curated by the Barbican and organised in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., where a version of the exhibition will be shown from 14 October 2016 to 8 January 2017.
14 July - 4 September 2016
‘One of the most celebrated performance artists anywhere’ New York Times
Bringing together live performance, music, film, painting, sculpture and drawing, this long overdue solo exhibition is the first in the UK to survey the work of the internationally acclaimed Icelandic artist, Ragnar Kjartansson.
Born into a family of acting professionals and having grown up backstage at the Reykjavik City Theatre, Kjartansson’s work combines his experience of stage traditions with experiments in repetition and endurance. Clichés and motifs of Western culture, romantic melancholy and even his own conception, provide the personal and often playful subject matter of the artist’s emotionally charged work. Having successfully represented Iceland at the 2009 Venice Biennale and participated in 2013 with standout works, Kjartansson is now at the cutting edge of contemporary performance art. The exhibition centres around the immersive and moving multi-channel video installation The Visitors (2012) and Take Me Here by the Dishwasher: Memorial for a Marriage (2011) a live performance full of romance and humour featuring ten troubadours singing for up to eight hours a day, every day for the duration.
Ragnar Kjartansson will present these spell-binding and multi-sensory experiences amongst a wide-ranging survey, perfectly-timed to shine a spotlight on one of the contemporary art world’s most exciting and evolving artists.
Exhibition curated by the Barbican and organised in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., where a version of the exhibition will be shown from 14 October 2016 to 8 January 2017.