BRYNDÍS SNÆBJÖRNSDÓTTIR
Visual Artist I Iceland
Dr. Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir was born in Reykjavík 1955. She completed her BA (1992) and MFA (1994) in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art and completed a practice based PhD at Valand Academy, Gothenburg University in 2010. She was a lecturer in Glasgow School of Art 1995-2002, a Professor at Valand Academy from 2011-2015 and adj. Professor at Malmö Art Academy 2015-2017. She is currently an Honorary Guest Professor at Institute of the Arts, Cumbria University, England and Professor and MA programme director in Fine Art at Iceland University of the Arts. Bryndís works in a collaborative partnership with the artist Mark Wilson.
Their artworks have been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally and they are frequent speakers at international conferences on issues related to their practice. Their works have been widely discussed in texts across many disciplinary fields and regularly cited as being contributive to knowledge in the expanded field of research-based art practice. They were Research Fellows at the Centre for Art + Environment at Nevada Museum of Art, US from 2014-2016 and PolarLab Artists in Residence at Anchorage Museum, Alaska from 2015-2020. In 2013-2015 they were part of “Visualizing Sustainability” commissioned by Arizona State University Museum and the Global Institute for Sustainability at ASU, USA leading to the project and exhibition Trout Fishing in America at ASUMofA in 2014 and the related publication You Must Carry Me Now, published by Forlaget 284, Gothenburg in 2015. In 2019 they received a substantial grant from the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannís) for their project Visitations: Polar bears out of place leading to a solo-exhibition in 2021 at Akureyri Art Museum, Iceland. For this exhibition, the artists received the Icelandic Visual Art Prize for 2022 and for their publication Debatable Lands published by Gerðarsafn and edited by Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, they received the 2023 Icelandic Visual Arts Publication Award. Their artworks from the Visitations project are part of the DownNorth Trienniale exhibition exhibited in Portland Museum of Art, USA, 2022 and in Reykjavík Art Museum, Iceland in 2023. DownNorth is on show in Bildmuseet in Umeå, Sweden until 14th of January 2024. Their artwork is installation based, using variety of media including photography, video, text, drawing, objects and sound.
Bryndís‘ and Mark‘s interdisciplinary art practice is research-based, exploring issues of history, culture and environment in relation to both humans and non-human species. Working very often in close consultation in the field, with experts including professionals and amateurs, they use their work to test cultural constructs and tropes, and human behaviour in respect of ecologies, extinction, conservation and the environment. Underpinning much of their practice are issues of psychological and physical displacement and realignment in respect of land and environment and the effect of these positions on cultural identity and perspectives.
For her project at Circolo Scandinavo, Bryndís is planning to research representations of animals in public sculptures and the visual arts in the museums in Rome.
www.snaebjornsdottirwilson.com