Dagrún Aðalsteinsdóttir (b. 1989 in Iceland) is an artist, writer and an independent curator based in Berlin and Reykjavík. Her position as a curator comes from the desire to have a sense of agency as an artist, creating platforms and dialogues that feed back into her own art practice. Dagrún works in various mediums from performances, texts and videos to collage drawings. Her work is an attempt to use personal or fictional scenarious and narratives to be in dialogue with how personal value versus collective value can overlap within the context of a cultural production. The work explores the anti-spectacular and awkward positions of personhood- in order to study what happens in the psychosis when our ideas of ideological and economical value fail.
Dagrún graduated in the year 2016 with M.A degree in Fine Art from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, a partner institute with Goldsmiths University in London. Dagrún works in collaboration with artists in Europe, Africa and Asia, organizing and curating projects in collaboration with contemporary art institutions as well as artist run spaces.
Recently curated projects: Object of desire group exhibition with 8 artists from Iceland and Singapore organized in collaboration with Institute of Contemporary Art in Singapore and Gerðarsafn Museum in Iceland (2019-2021), Professional Amateur
group exhibition of 5 artists from Iceland organized in collaboration with two artist run spaces-Kling and Bang in Reykjavík, Iceland and ABC Klubhuis in Antwerp, Belgium (2018).
Exhibitions and Projects: The common Inn at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam curated by Simon Becks and Jules van den Langenberg (2019), Papiripar Festival-Performance with Rebecca Erin Moran in Hamburg (2018), Addis Video Art Festival-Guest Program curated by Erin Honeycutt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2017),
Night Transmissions-Video Broadcasting at the national TV station RÚV in Iceland curated by Margot Norton-associate curator at The New Museum in New York (2016),
Session #1 duo exhibition with Mike HJ Chang inauguration at Peninsular in Singapore (2016), Icelandic biennale Sequences VII curated by Alfredo Cramerotti-creative director of Mostyn in Whales (2015).
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CV
Education:
2016 Master of Arts Fine Art, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore/Goldsmiths, University of London.
2013 Bachelor of Arts Fine Art, Iceland Academy of the Arts.
Solo/Duo Exhibitions:
2017 Presentation for a new museum, project in collaboration with Ásta
Fanney S. part of the off venue program at Sequences VIII at Bismút
Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland.
2016 Session #1: Dagrún Aðalsteinsdóttir + Mike HJ Chang, Peninsular,
inauguration of sessions pairing two artists, writers or curators, Singapore.
2015 The alchemical body, Nothing Gallery, Xiamen China.
2014 We are all lovers, Kaffistofan gallery, Reykjavik Iceland.
Curator:
2019-2021 Object of desire, posing as a curator, writer and an artist in this
group exhibition bringing together 8 artists from Iceland and
Singapore, in collaboration with two art institutions Institute of Contemporary Art
in Singapore and Gerðarsafn Museum in
Kópavogur, Iceland.
2018 Professional Amateur, posing as a curator, writer and an artist in this
group exhibition, Kling and Bang Gallery, Reykjavik Iceland and ABC Klubhuis,
Antwerp Belgium.
2017 Rolling Snowball/9, Assistant Curator and participating artist in this
group exhibition curated by Sigurður Guðmundsson and Þór
Vigfússon, CEAC in Djúpivogur Iceland.
Essays:
2020 The Cultural Bureaucrat: Management of Past, Current and Future
Cultural Value, Essay for Dunce Magazine, Iceland.
2019 Object of desire, Essay written in correlation with the exhibition
at Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore and Gerðarsafn
Museum, Iceland.
2018 Professional Amateur, Essay written in correlation with the exhibition
in Kling and Bang Gallery, Reykjavik Iceland and ABC Klubhuis,
Antwerp Belgium.
2016 The desire to Dissolve, M.A thesis from Lasalle College of the Arts.
Group Exhibitions:
2021 Object of desire, Gerðarsafn-Kópavogur Art Museum, Iceland.
2020 Sensational Subjectivity, Addis Video Art Festival, Addis Ababa
Ethiopia.
2019 Light Bazaar, The Living Art Museum, Iceland.
2019 Object of desire, Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore.
2019 Redux, Untitled Space, Shanghai, China.
2019 The Common Inn, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
2019 Mörsugur, Outvert Art Space, Ísafjörður, Iceland.
2018 Le Grand Salon de Noel, Print and Friends at Ásmundarsalur,
Reykjavík, Iceland.
2018 Professional Amateur, ABC Klubhuis, Antwerp, Belgium.
2018 Papiripar Festival, Performance with Rebecca Erin Moran part of
Pinkie Bowtie and De Player program in Papiripar Festival,Hamburg, Germany.
2018 Professional Amateur, Kling and Bang Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland.
2017 Love Triangle, Addis Video Art Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
2017 Field Trip Project Asia, Kuala Lumpur Biennale, Malaysia.
2017 Rolling Snowball 9, CEAC (Chinese European Art Center) in
Djúpivogur, Iceland.
2017 Temperature of Communication, Oil Street Art Space, Hong Kong.
2017 Field Trip Project Asia, Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
2016 Wayang Malam, Outdoor film and video screening, Lasalle School of Fine Arts, Winstedt Campus, Singapore.
2016 Rolling Snowball 7, CEAC in Djúpivogur, exhibition of 22 Icelandic artists and 10 artists from the
Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Iceland.
2016 And the rest of such things, M.A graduation show from Lasalle School of Fine Arts, Institute of
Contemporary Arts, Singapore.
2016 Night Transmissions: Electronic Intimacy, broadcasting on the National Broadcast Service Television
Station Station RÚV, Iceland.
2015 Sweet spot: MA Fine Arts work-in-progress, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore.
2015 Field Trip Project Asia, Vargas Museum, Manila Philippines.
2015 Video archive, Kling and Bang Gallery in Klingenthal Austellungsraum Basel, Switzerland.
2015 Field Trip Project Asia, NIE Art Gallery, Singapore.
2015 Video booth in Kunstschlager-parlour, The Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland.
2015 Biennale “Plumbing”, Sequences VII, National gallery- Ásgrímur
Jónsson Collection, Reykjavik Iceland.
2014 Rottan nr.2 in Hjalteyri, Kunstschlager gallery, Iceland.
2014 The Lust hour, Kunstschlager gallery, Reykjavik Iceland.
2013 Graduation show, The Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland.
2012 Artist of the week, Kunstschlager gallery, Reykjavik Iceland.
2010 Untitled, The Lost Horse gallery, Reykjavik Iceland.
2010 Student exhibition, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik Iceland.
2010 Performance, Kaffistofan gallery, Reykjavik Iceland.
2010 Student exhibition, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik Iceland.
2010 Performance at the Sultan performance night, Bakkus, Reykjavik
Iceland.
2009 Performance night, Kaffistofan gallery, Reykjavik Iceland.
2008 Performance at Cultural Night, Epal Window on Laugavegur Reykjavik Iceland.
2008 Performance at the opening of Epal on Laugavegur, Reykjavik
Iceland.
Activities:
2018 Art Residency with SÍM in Berlin sponsored for the month of September.
2018 Art Residency with The Untitled Space in Shanghai China for 3 months.
2015 Art Residency with CEAC (Chinese European Art Center) in Xiamen China for 1 month.
2013 Working at the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
2011-2012 Traveling solo and working on the project Girlfriends in India.
2008 Assisting with the biennale Sequences Iceland.
2007-2010 Working at The Art Museum of Reykjavík, Iceland.
Grants & Awards:
2019 3-month visual artists stipend, from The Icelandic Ministry of Culture.
2015 Grant for progression from Lasalle College of the Arts.
2014 Grant from the fund of Guðmunda Andrésdóttir-The National Gallery of Iceland.