Ragnar Kjartansson
"Colonization"
Ragnar Kjartansson lives and works in Reykjavik. He made his Danish debut in the landmark exhibition “Iceland in Denmark” in 2003 at Galleri Stalke/Kirke Sonnerup, curated by Gunnar Örn. The exhibition brought together leading Icelandic artists including Anna Líndal, Elías Hjörleifsson, Ólafur Elíasson, Ívar Valgardsson, Hallgrímur Helgason, Guðmundur Ingólfsson, Ragnar Kjartansson and Gunnar Örn.
Kjartansson participated with the video work “Colonization”, a piece that, with irony and melancholy, reflected on identity, cultural encounters and Icelandic self-perception in a global context.
The exhibition was a central contribution to the presentation of the Icelandic art scene in Denmark and took place in the early phase of Kjartansson’s international career.
Since then, Kjartansson has achieved wide international recognition with solo exhibitions at institutions such as ICA Boston, Guggenheim Bilbao, the New Museum in New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and Barbican Art Gallery in London. In Denmark, he was most recently presented with a major retrospective at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Ragnar Kjartansson's video piece "Colonization