Gunnhildur Hauksdottir received her MFA from the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2006 and her BFA from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2002. She served on the board of the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik from 2010 to 2015 and was director from 2011 to 2014. She currently sits on the alternate board of the Skaftfell Art Centre in Seydisfjordur, East-Iceland. Gunnhildur holds a visiting artist position at the Iceland Academy of the Arts where she periodically teaches, a mentorship at UNM (Ung Nordisk Musik) in 2022 for young experimental and contemporary composers and a place at Performance Art Bergen symposium in Norway 2022. Her works are found in public collections including the National Gallery of Art in Iceland, Uppsala Art Museum in Sweden, the Goethe Institute in Copenhagen, the Hess Gallery Collection in Lethbridge, Canada and the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik. Her works and performances have been exhibited and performed widely throughout her career, she took part in the Silver Lining, Collateral Event at the 56th International Art Exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia in 2015. Among the institutions that have displayed her works are the Galeria Municipal do Porto, the National Gallery of Iceland, the Reykjavik Art Museum, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, the Uppsala Art Museum and the 21 Haus at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.
Gunnhildur has strong ties to Seydisfjordur and has lived there on and off since the start of her career. She is currently based in Reykjavik and Berlin.