Ragnar Kjartansson

October 14 - January 8, 2016 - This exhibition features Kjartansson’s most celebrated works, including many never before seen in the US. In God, Kjartansson embodies a 1950’s lounge singer, repeatedly crooning, “Sorrow conquers happiness” while backed by an eleven-piece orchestra. To create The End – Venezia , while representing Iceland at the Venice Biennale, Kjartansson settled in a palace and painted a series of 144 portraits one each day of Speedo-clad fellow artist Pall Haukur Bjornsson, tirelessly mimicking the romantic quest for inspiration. His most well-known work to date and a highlight of the exhibition, The Visitors, is an immersive nine-screen film of Kjartansson and fellow musicians performing a gospel dirge while scattered throughout a decaying mansion.