The Icelandic Art Prize 2024

Amanda Riffo (b. 1977) receives the Icelandic Art Prize as Artist of the Year 2024 for her solo exhibition House of Purkinje.

Brák Jónsdóttir (b. 1996) is the recipient of the Motivational Award of the Icelandic Art Prize 2024 for her exhibition Possible Oddkin in the Nordic House’s Greenhouse in Reykjavík.

The Icelandic Visual Arts Council presents the Honorary Award for lifetime achievement, for the fourth time, to an artist who has dramatically enriched the Icelandic art scene over a long and illustrious career. This year, we are pleased to present the award to Hreinn Friðfinnsson, a continual influential force in Icelandic art since the mid-sixties. Although Hreinn has resided abroad for most of his life, his work has always been well-known to subsequent generations of Icelandic artists. To this day, his works present creative challenges to the emerging generation of artists.

The Visual Arts Council’s Publication Award goes to Art Can Heal: The Life and Work of Sigríður Björnsdóttir. The book is about Sigríður Björnsdóttir, an artist and innovator in the field of art therapy, being mainly written by teacher and artist Ágústa Oddsdóttir, who has studied Sigríður’s extensive career for many years. The book is 270 pages long and is skillfully edited. Multiple photographs adorn the publication: of Sigríður in her daily life and work, of her clients’ drawings and other illustrations. Among them are drawings by the author Ágústa Oddsdóttir, who provides readers with an intriguing insight into her long-term collaboration and dialogue with Sigríður.

The Visual Arts Council’s Award for Group Exhibition of the Year goes to Tracing Fragments, in Gerðarsafn in Kópavogur. The exhibition, installed in the museum’s two main galleries, featured new and recent works of 6 artists, two of whom are Icelanders of foreign descent. The artists’ works addressed the bond between self-image and nationality, parentage and personality traits, as well as how personal history relates to history in the grander sense.

The Visual Arts Council’s Award for Retrospective of the Year goes to Hildur Hákonardóttir: Red Thread, an exhibition of works by artist Hildur Hákonardóttir, at the Reykjavík Art Museum, Kjarvalsstaðir. The exhibition is the result of extensive research on Hildur’s artistic career by curator Sigrún Inga Hrólfsdóttir. The exhibition is the first of three research projects supported by The Museum Fund’s Excellence Grant, awarded to the Reykjavík Art Museum in 2021 to examine the role and influence of women in Icelandic art.

The Icelandic Art Prize 2024 was awarded on March 14th in Reykjavík. The awards provide recognition to outstanding visual artists and exhibitions. 

It is with great joy that the Visual Arts Council announces the nominations for the Icelandic Art Prize awards for 2024. The award will be presented for the seventh time on March 14th at Iðnó, Reykjavík.

The Icelandic Art Prize was awarded for the sixth time in Iðnó on March 16, 2023.

The Icelandic Art Prize 2022 took place on March 17th in Reykjavík.

The Icelandic Art Prize 2021 winner was announced on February 25 by the minister of education and culture, Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, at the National Gallery of Iceland.