Ragnheiður Gestsdóttir
(IS)
Ragnheiður Gestsdóttir is a multidisciplinary Icelandic artist heavily influenced by her background in visual anthropology. In her installations, sculptures, photos and films she critically explores the human desire for uniformity and absolute truths and their inherent failure. She does so by revealing the power structures, layers and cracks hidden under a desired glossy surface. She is interested in knowledge production and language and the impossibility of translation – be it across languages, cultures, times, places or individuals, focusing on the concealed and marginalized narratives that scaffold the dominant ones.
Ragnheiður is also a documentary filmmaker, she has worked with several artists and musicians, including Ragnar Kjartansson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson and Björk. Her films have been shown internationally at museums and galleries, film festivals, on TV as well as being released on DVD.
Ragnheiður received an MFA from Bard College in 2012 and an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths College in 2001. She has exhibited her work at Reykjavík Art Museum, Gerðarsafn Art Museum, Kunstschlager Gallery, The Living Art Museum and at the Sequences Art Festival in Reykjavík, Göteborgs Konsthall in Sweden, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Soloway Gallery and Franklin Street Works in New York City, among other venues.