b. 1976 in Reykjavik
Lives and works in Reykjavik
EDUCATION
1997–2001
Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík, Iceland
2000
The Royal Academy, Stockholm, Sweden, exchange student
1996–1997
Hússtjórnarskólinn, Reykjavík, Iceland
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
2022
Ragnar Kjartansson: Time Changes Everything, De Pont Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Schmerz, Theater Spektakel, Saffa Island, Zürich, Switzerland
The Sky in a Room, St Mary Magdalene Church, Tanworth-in-Arden, England
Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen, Volkstheater Wien, Vienna, Austria
Ragnar Kjartansson:Emotional Landscapes, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Underworld of Akureyri, Icelandic Art Center, Reykjavik, Iceland
2021
Ragnar Kjartansson: Santa Barbara, GES-2 House of Culture, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, Russia
Ragnar Kjartansson: Death is Elsewhere, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Ragnar Kjartansson: Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Ragnar Kjartansson: Sumarnótt, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Boston, MA
2020
Ragnar Kjartansson: Death is Elsewhere, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, Boston, MA
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Sky in the Room, Church of San Carlo al Lazzaretto, Milan, Italy
2019
Focus On: Ragnar Kjartansson, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson: Scenes from Western Culture,Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon, USA
The Visitors, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Ragnar Kjartansson. The Man, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Cordoba, Spain
Scheize – Liebe – Sehnsucht, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Ragnar Kjartansson: A Lot of Sorrow, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Canada
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, MFA The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson: Death Is Elsewhere,The Met Fifth Avenue, New York, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Figures in Landscape, i8 Gallery, Iceland
2018
Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy, Women’s Building, San Francisco, California, USA
Krieg (War), National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Ragnar Kjartansson: A Lot of Sorrow, Faurschou Foundation Beijing, Beijing, China
S.S. Hangover, The Contemporary, Austin, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Sky in a Room, National Museum Cardiff, Wales
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
2017
Ragnar Kjartansson: God I feel so bad, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
Raw Salon: Ein Rohspiel, Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany
No Tomorrow (with Margrét Bjarnadóttir) performed by the Icelandic Dance Company, London, UK and Reykjavik, Iceland
2016–2017
Ragnar Kjartansson, Barbican, London, UK;Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA
2016
The Visitors, The Frist Center, Nashville, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kaupmannahöfn, Denmark
The Visitors, Le Printemps de septembre, Toulouse, France
A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and the National, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Architecture and Morality, cca, Tel Aviv, Israel
Krieg (War), Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, Berlin, Germany
The Visitors,University of Buffalo Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA
Woman in E, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Ragnar Kjartansson, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
2015–2016
Seul celui qui connaît le désir, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2015
The Visitors, The Vinyl Factory, London, UK
A Lot of Sorrow, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
The End, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, USA
The Fall, Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, Germany
A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and The National,König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Song, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Me and My Mother, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland
The End, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Australia
The Visitors, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Visitors, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
The Visitors and The Man, John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Australia
2014–2015
Black Box: Ragnar Kjartansson, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA
2014
The End – Rocky Mountains, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada
The Palace of the Summerland, Ragnar Kjartansson and Friends, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and The National, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York, USA
Bjarni Bummer Listens to Take it Easy by the Eagles, Skúrinn, Reykjavík, Iceland
Me, My Mother, My Father and I, New Museum, New York, USA
The Visitors, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, Berlin, Germany
The Visitors, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
2013–2014
The Visitors, Kling & Bang Gallerí, Reykjavík, Iceland
The Visitors, Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy
2013
Ragnar Kjartansson, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, USA
A Lot of Sorrow, Ragnar Kjartansson and The National, MoMA PS1, New York, USA
The Visitors, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
The End, Szene Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
The Visitors, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA
Scandinavian Pain: Ragnar Kjartansson, Edvard Munch, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
2012
The End, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada
The Visitors, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
H2H, Athens, Greece
Call/Response: The Gund Gallery Turns 10, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
To Moscow! To Moscow! To Moscow!, GES-2 House of Culture, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, Russia
Eternal Recurrence, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
The Pleasure Pavilion: A Series of Installations, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY Plus One, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY
2020
The Blue Peal of Bells, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, South Korea
AGAINandAGAINandAGAINand, MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Come Closer, Biennale Ve veci umeni / Matter of Art 2020 (VVUMOA), Prague City Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
Photography’s
Last Century: The Collection of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Unique, Parkett Space, Zurich, Switzerland
Up to and Including Limits: After Carolee Schneemann, Muzeum Susch, Susch, Switzerland
2019
Happy !, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
MOMENTUM 10 - The Emotional Exhibition, Galleri F 15, Moss, Norway
Nordic Impressions - Contemporary Art from Åland, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway & Sweden, ASF + Scandinavia House, New York, USA
2018-2019
Allting föreställer. Ingenting är., Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden
Nordic Impressions: Art from Åland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland
Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, 1821-2017, Phillips Collection,
Washington, D.C
2018
Double Lives: Visual Artists Making Music, museum moderner kunst stiftung ludwig wien, Viena, Austria
Nordic Views, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen, Denmark
You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences, North Carolina Museum of Art,
Raleigh, USA
2017-2018
Commissions from Performa’s Archives, Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
La mère la mer, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
Leonard Cohen: Une brèche en toute chose / A Crack in Everything, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
2017
Soundtracks, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The Voice, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Opnun, Kling og Bang, Reykjavik, Iceland
Nordic Matters, Southbank Centre, London, U.K
2016
Dicker als Wasser. Konzepte des Familiären in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Kunstpalais & Stadtische Sammlung Erlangen, Erlangen
Reading Prison, Art Angel, Reading, U.K
Life Serial, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery – Columbia University, New York, USA
I See a Darkness, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Illumination, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Auf den Schultern von Giganten, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Moving Image Department – 4th Chapter: The Rhetoric Of Time, Revisited, National Gallery Prague, Veletržní Palace, Prague, Czech Republic
Collection on Display: Momentary Monuments, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Lines of Flight: Life Serial, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Spring Performance Festival, Kunstverein, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2015–2017
Sound in Motion, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
2015–2016
The Bauhaus #itsalldesign, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany; Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany
Inaugural installation, The Broad, Los Angeles, California, USA
Saga. Iceland: Art and Narrative, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
2015
Drifting in Daylight: Art in Central Park, Creative Time and Central Park Conservancy, Central Park, New York, USA
Falling Fictions, me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany
Fireflies in the Night, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens, Greece
Framing Desire: Photography and Video, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
An Imprecise Science, Artspace, Woolloomooloo, Australia
MusicNOW Festival, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Listening, Baltic 39, Newcastle, UK; The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; Site Gallery, Sheffield, uk; Art Exchange, Colchester, UK
Piano Pieces – Pianos. Sounds. Art., Neue Residenz, Salzburg Museum, Salzburg, Austria
Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival of Music, Art and Conversation, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, Home Manchester, Manchester, UK
Saga: Narrative Art, Listasafn Islands, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Überschönheit, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria
Und weg mit den Minuten. Dieter Roth und die Musik, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum fur Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
A man walks into a bar… ., me Collectors Room Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2014–2015
Artes Mundi 6, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales, uk
2014
High Performance: Time-Based Media Art since 1996 from the Julia Stoschek Collection, Rīgas Mākslas Telpa, Riga, Latvia
Imaginary Portraits: Prince Igor, Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, New York, USA
Manifesta 10, Vitebsk Station, St. Petersburg, Russia
Rolling Snowball 5, Chinese European Art Center, Djúpivogur, Iceland
Score, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
Your Compound View, Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
Island: Wenn Bilder erzählen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany
All Together Now, Nuit Blanche, Hart House, Toronto, Canada
Stanze/Rooms, Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Truly Flabby Preludes (For a Dog) 1/4: Pink Noise, La Maison Populaire, Montreuil, France
2013
Göteborg Biennial, with Andjeas Ejiksson, Stora Teatren, Gothenburg, Sweden
Towada Art Festival at Towada Art Centre, Japan
Civilization: Monumental Materialism. Artists colony, MoMA PS1, New York, USA
Deep Feelings: From Antiquity to Now, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria, Venice Biennale, Arsenale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
A Space called Public, part of Elmgreen & Dragset’s project of public artworks, Munich, Germany
Il Palazzo Enciclopedico(The Encyclopaedic Palace) 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Trekk: Contemporary Currents in Icelandic Art Today, Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Forde, Norway
1.pers.sing.: The artist’s body between self-portrait and performance, b-05 Kunst- und Kulturzentrum Association e.V, Montabaur, Germany
Sequences VI Real Time Art Festival, Reykjavík
2012
I Wish this was a Song: Music in Contemporary Art, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway
Songs of space, time and lust, Ephemeropterae˜ XIV / XV+, tba21, Vienna, Austria
Á Ciel Ouvert - Le Nouveau Pleinairisme, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec, Canada
True Stories, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Bliss, The National Theatre of Iceland as part of The Reykjavík Art Festival, Iceland
A House Full of Music: Strategies in Music and Art, Institute Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Discussing Metamodernism, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin, Germany
It’s Not the End of the World, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Cardiff, Wales
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
The Broad Art Foundation, USA
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA
Center for Curatorial Studies – Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, USA
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
El Mirador Project, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ
Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo,Turin, Italy
Glenstone, Potomac, MD
Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, USA
Haudenschild Collection, La Jolla, CA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.cC, USA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
McEvoy Foundation of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, Florida, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warsaw, Poland
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
University of Copenhagen Maersk Tower, Copenhagen, Denmark
V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, Russia