Icelandic artist of the week!

Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976, Reykjavík, Iceland) displays a keen eye for the tragicomic spectacle of human experience where sorrow collides with happiness, horror with beauty, and drama with humor. Though he is primarily known for his explorations in durational performance, Kjartansson has successfully pursued more traditional media such as painting, drawing, and video. Regardless of artistic endeavor, theatricality, repetition, and identity are ever-recurring themes in his work. He has taken on countless roles in his performances, melding his own personality with characters from cultural history. His work taps into nostalgic imagery from bygone eras of theater, television, music, and art, allowing him to blur the border between life and art, reality and fiction.