Artists on artists: Rakel McMahon

Registration HERE
The talk is in Icelandic.

On the occasion of Gilbert & George: THE GREAT EXHIBITION, the Reykjavík Art Museum has approached few artists to walk with visitors through the exhibition and examine artworks and the exhibition through the artists point of view.

The British artist duo Gilbert & George is made up of two men who together form a creative force. For over five decades, they have created unique works where daily life and art merge. These world-renowned artists have shaped contemporary art, and they are known for paving the way for performance art and approaching their private life like an artwork. They have challenged prevailing, bourgeois ideas of taste and decorum, and also advanced the changing of attitude towards gays and other minority groups.

Rakel McMahon (b.1983) lives and works between Athens and Reykjavík. McMahon is interested in approaching and presenting her subject matter through re-interpretation, the use of metaphor and a reevaluation of what is deemed serious, humorous and normal. The subject and issues she works with relate to gender, sexuality, stereotypes and normality. McMahon also participates in two active collaborative projects; It´s the Media Not You, which was founded in 2014 with artists Eva Ísleifs and Katrín Inga Jóns-Hjördísardóttir and performance duo Wunderkind Collective, which was founded in 2011 in partnership with author Bergþóra Snæbjörnsdóttir. 

She graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2008; she also holds a diploma in Gender Studies from the University of Iceland and a M.Art.Ed. from the Iceland Academy of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at various places both in Iceland and internationally.
In addition McMahon has also seen to organizing exhibitions, artist-run spaces and other cultural events such as the artistic board of Sequences - real time art festival and is a former member of the board of The Living Art Museum (2013-2015).