Ragnar Kjartansson

Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976 Reykjavik) is heralded as one of the most distinctive contemporary artists working today. Drawing on Western musical and artistic themes, Kjartansson offers an adoring and satirical spin on literature, cinema and pop music. 

This exhibition, the first of its kind in Australia, presents new and recent video works that define Kjartansson’s art practice, which is steeped in humour, music and theatre. Key works include  A Lot of Sorrow, 2013–14, in which Kjartansson joins US rock band The National to perform their song ‘Sorrow’ continuously for six hours; his recent pastorale Sunday Without Love, in which we see people clad in folk costume in idyllic scenery, repeating the lament ‘You must learn to live without love, love is not good for you’; and the acclaimed nine-screen installation The Visitors, 2012, filmed at Rokeby mansion in upstate New York. Each room of the nineteenth-century mansion hosts a different musician – a drummer in the kitchen, Kjartansson on guitar in the bath, a banjo-player in the library – performing lyrics written by artist Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir. Together, they create a melancholic jam session the artist has described as a ‘feminine nihilistic gospel song’. 

Humour, often dark and at times unsettling, is another thread in Kjartansson’s work. In the ongoing video work Me and My Mother, Kjartansson asks his mother, the acclaimed Icelandic actor Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir, to spit on him. The resulting portraits capture dramatic pauses, sideways glances, grimaces and stifled laughter. Kjartansson’s artistic voice is unique and enthralling, offering audiences deeply reflective moments imbued with music, language and humanity.

Kjartansson has a lifelong connection to theatre shaped by his childhood. The son of a director and an actor, Kjartansson grew up surrounded by rehearsals, scripts and backstage activity. Watching performers repeat lines and refine scenes sparked his interest in the process and continues to inform his own creative practice. 

For children, Kjartansson has created an exhibition inspired by the idea of a theatrical feast – a concept originating in the Middle Ages, evolving from lavish festivities at European courts in the Rococo period to the modern notion of ‘dinner and a show’. Together with the NGV team, Kjartansson has reimagined banquet halls and theatres for the NGV Children’s Gallery. 

Children’s Play: Ragnar Kjartansson invites young visitors into a playful, creative space where they can be audience members, actors and creators, inventing and performing stories with friends and family onstage. 

Taking inspiration from the theatre tradition of the banquet and show, the exhibition features activity tables with lavish displays of food. Arranged like still-life compositions, children are invited to draw what entices them – or perhaps imagine what they would like to eat. And for dessert: soft, colourful upholstered cushions, perfect for small hands to stack and transform into topsy-turvy cake sculptures. 

Designed for all ages, the exhibition explores themes of excess and performance, reflecting the artist’s focus on drawing and theatre – two core elements of his practice. For children, it sparks creativity and encourages free expression through drawing and theatrical play.