Artist talk #25

Tuesday January 19 at 16:30
Skaftfell, Austurvegur 43, 3rd floor.

Meet and hear the current Artists-in-Residence at Skaftfell in January, Nora Mertes (DE) & Rashanna Rashied-Walker (USA), on Tuesday when they will present their practice and selected works. Local artists Ingirafn Steinarsson will also give a short presentation about his work and resent stay at Slakthusateljerna in December last year, a residency exchange through Skaftfell. The talk will take place in English.

About the artists:

Ingirafn Steinarsson educated at a. o. Malm Art Academy, is an Icelandic artist based in Seyisfjrur. Steinarsson returns in his work to the ability of art to communicate with the surrounding world, as well as to how the understanding produced relates to society. His investigations often take the shape of questions which are integrated with the art piecess functions; objects and video pieces, where the artist through various media and through sociological as well as psychological and epistemological aspects, approaches what he describes as an aesthetic of knowledge. Currently Steinarsson works with a series of colourful drawings based on illustrations with the purpose of explaining, for instance, Western technology or the spirituality within the New Age movement.

Nora Mertes studied at the Alanus Academy in Bonn and at Hiroshima City University, and completed a Masters degree at the Institute for Art in Context, University of the Arts, Berlin. Besides her artistic practice she is currently teachingatthe Institute for Architecture-related Art at the Technical University Braunschweig.Norasresidency at Skaftfell is supported bya grant from the Goethe-Institut Dänemark.

In my work, I deal with the physical and virtual reality of rooms and landscapes to investigate the question of location and situation.My impression of a place is that of an entity that constantly produces, copies, collapses, and re-creates itself through interaction, representation, and reproduction. An entity that is never clear, but rather is always in the making, on the verge of transformation from one state to another.

Rashanna Rashied-Walker is a New York based artist and writer. She received her BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art and an MFA from University of the Arts in London, England. Much of her work levitates the visible and invisible poetry within the natural world. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including Royal Institute of Art, Sweden; Mass Moca, Massachusetts; Cabinet, New York; Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts, Scotland; Botkyrah Konsthall, Sweden; Whitespace,Thailand; The Bronx Museum of Art, Five Myles and BRIC Rotunda Gallery in New York. Rashied- Walker has been awarded residencies at The Artist Village, Mustarinda, Vermont Studio Center, Banff Art Center, The Land Foundation and The Bronx Museum of Art. Published literary work includes: Content, The Happy Hypocrite, The Critical Friend, Creative Week and FIRE.