i8 Gallery

About the Gallery
Over its thirty-year history, i8 Gallery has fostered an influential group of artists from its Reykjavík base. The foundation of i8 Gallery is the conceptual rigor and intellectual spirit of its artists’ practices, which subtly unites the diverse roster. The twenty-three artists of the gallery work in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, painting, drawing, video, textile, installation, and performance.

i8 Gallery, founded in 1995 by Edda Jónsdóttir and her son Börkur Arnarson, draws its name from its original address at Ingólfstræti 8. The gallery moved to its current location near Reykjavík Harbor in 2010, across from the Reykjavík Art Museum. In 2022, i8 opened i8 Grandi, the gallery’s second location in Reykjavík that focuses on year-long, single-artist exhibitions. Located in the Marshall House, a cultural centre in a historic factory building in Reykjavík's Grandi harbour district, i8 Grandi shares a building with the Living Art Museum, Kling & Bang, and artist Ólafur Elíasson’s private studio.

About the Presentation
i8 Gallery will present work by Arna Óttarsdóttir in a solo presentation, marking Óttarsdóttir’s New York debut. The artist works by hand on looms in her Reykjavík studio, primarily using wool and cotton, as well as linen and silk. Throughout her practice, Óttarsdóttir uses her own notebooks, which are filled with thoughts and drawings, as source material for her works. By incorporating sketches and less formal visual elements into the weavings, Óttarsdóttir infuses her work with a spirited, personal energy that permeates the presentation. Óttarsdóttir combines elements of abstraction and figuration and explores the physical properties of her materials; at times, the artist eschews a tight weaving technique in favor of a loose, drawing-like approach. The patterns, textures, and colors within Óttarsdóttir's tapestries vary within individual works, allowing the artist to investigate the aesthetic intricacies weaving allows.