Ragnar Kjartansson (performance artist)

Ragnar Kjartansson ([ˈraknar̥ cʰar̥tansɔn]) is a contemporary Icelandic artist^[1] who engages multiple artistic mediums, creating video installations, performances, drawings, and paintings that draw upon myriad historical and cultural references. An underlying pathos and irony connect his works, with each deeply influenced by the comedy and tragedy of classical theater. The artist blurs the distinctions between mediums, approaching his painting practice as performance, likening his films to paintings, and his performances to sculpture. Throughout, Kjartansson conveys an interest in beauty and its banality, and he uses durational, repetitive performance as a form of exploration.^[2]

Kjartansson (b. 1976)^[3] lives and works in Reykjavík. Major solo shows include exhibitions at Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík; the Barbican Centre, London; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the New Museum, New York; the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; the Frankfurter Kunstverein; Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk, Denmark; the BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna, amongst others. Kjartansson participated in The Encyclopedic Palace at the Venice Biennale in 2013, Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2014, and he represented Iceland at the 2009 Venice Biennale.^[4] He is the recipient of the 2015 Artes Mundi's Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award, and Performa's 2011 Malcolm McLaren Award.^[5]

Kjartansson's exhibition "Epic Waste of Love and Understanding", held at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art from August to October 2023, showcased his diverse approach, from endurance-testing repetition to subtly nuanced explorations of human connection, often blending humor and introspection.^[6]