Portrait

The Danish/Icelandic artist Sóley Ragnarsdóttir (b. 1991) lives and works in Thy, Denmark. Her practice is concerned with a sculptural approach to painting. She mixes locally found materials such as amber, shells, sea-sanded shards of glass, and ocean plastic found on the beach, with acrylic paint on canvas, as well as napkins hardened with epoxy, generating detailed and idiosyncratic surfaces. Alluding to the American Pattern and Decoration movement she investigates the nature of decoration and its structure. Ragnarsdóttir approaches the decorative as a language of abstraction, and ties it to the personal and the political. She is interested in craft, and how it is linked to what is supposedly stereotypically feminine. She is continually interested in women’s domestic arts and crafts, and the feminist critique of the hierarchy of art and craft in relation to the contemporary.

Vita

CV
Sóley Ragnarsdóttir (f. 1991. DK/IS)
EDUCATION
2021 Overgaden, INTRO, Post Graduate, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014-2019 Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany,
Meisterschüler under Professor Amy Sillman, Monika Baer and Nikolas Gambaroff
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS
2022 Cherrystone, Formation Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2021 Organizing Principles, Overgaden, Copenhagen, Denmark
2021 Dot dot dot, Gallery Jean Claude Maier, Frankfurt, Germany
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2023 Open Studios, Sorø Museum, Sorø, Denmark
2022 Art Hub Copenhagen x Vega Arts, Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022 Seed Bank, Baader Meinhof, Nebraska, USA
2022 Vestjyllandsudstillingen, Vestjyllands Museum, Tistrup, Denmark
2022 Afdansningsbal for Patriarkatet, Gallery Formation, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020 RADAR, Kunstforum, Darmstadt, Germany
2019 Meisterstücke – Vom Handwerk der Maler, Historical Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2023 More Love Hours, Roskildefestival, Roskilde, Denmark
2023 Nightmare Fuel, Group show, Y Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland
2024 More is More, Solo show at Gerðarsafn Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
PRIZES/SCHOLARSHIPS
2021 Copenhagen Municipality
2021 Beckett Fonden
2021 15 Juni Fonden
2021 Knud Højgaards Fond
2021 Danish Art Council
2020 Danish Art Council
2015 Grunelius Stiftung
RESIDENCIES AND TRAVEL GRANTS
2022 Residency To Go, Art Hub, Copenhagen, Denmark
2021 Overgaden, Travel grant
2019 HÆNG LØST,Residency, Stenbjerg Landingsplads, Thisted, Denmark
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
2022 Danish Art Council
2019 Oliver Puhl, private collection
2018 Jörg Weiler, private collection