Ragnar Kjartansson

Biography

Ragnar Kjartansson was born in Iceland in 1976 and works as a performance artist, painter, sculptor and musician. He studied at the Icelandic Academy of Arts and at the Royal Academy in Stockholm. In his work he traces the borders between reality and fiction, art and life, above all scrutinizing our collective notion of the figure of the artist. In his performances, videos and installations he consistently plays with the tools of theatricality and repetition, creating a continual dialogue between his own person and characters taken from cultural history. Kjartansson's works have been shown at the New Museum (New York), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zurich), the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin), Frankfurter Kunstverein and BAWAG Contemporary (Vienna). In 2001 Kjartansson received the  Performa 11 Malcolm McLaren Award for his performance “Bliss”. In 2009 he represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale.