Mindplay and Fingerdance – Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir’s career in artJónsdóttur

This exhibition is a retrospective of the extensive oeuvre of artist Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir (b. 1933), produced over a career of over four decades.  She was one of the pioneers who made graphic art central in the Icelandic art world in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some of Ragnheiður's depictions of everyday phenomena came to symbolise their time – especially in the context of feminism and women’s liberation, and the discourse on individual consciousness-raising which played an important role in western societies at that time. The artist has said of her work that she wants “to get the observer to think – to take a stance – to get him or her to feel anger – joy – revulsion, and so on. In short: to unsettle the observer.”

In 1990 Ragnheiður turned to drawing in her art, drawing freely on large picture planes, creating diverse patterns and flows. And since that time Ragnheiður has focussed mainly on drawing, devoting the same energy to her art as she has done throughout her long career.