Nina Gautadóttir designs her artwork throughout her journeys. As a child, she is fascinated by Icelandic women who turn knitting and patching into an art form. Naturally, she becomes passionate about weaving, and more precisely, about the traditional Gobelin tapestry technique that she learns in Paris, France. During these years, she invents her own style, at the crossroad between mastered tradition and overflowing fiber. Her designs become organic and sensual, emerging from lucky accidents and interlocking knots.
Following her graduation in arts at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, her creative research continues when she meets Tuareg nomads in Niger, where she lives during two years. They share their leather work skills with her, which gives her the opportunity to reinvent her own artistic practice ; the link with a living material becomes central to her focus. Back in Europe, she travels all around Iceland and later studies ancient languages in Paris. Thus, she feeds her new pictorial language, using an easel as a loom. From the material of canvas arise imaginary landscapes and signs of the past.
After many years engaged in painting, she finally settles in Paris to give a new orientation to her work. Here, she accumulates many materials that she finds from all around the city and reuses them in her artwork. Now she is having fun with threads, glitter, jewelry and image associations in a kitsch, colorful, and flowery universe.
Biography
Nína Gautadóttir, born in Iceland, lives and works in Paris.
1970: Arrives in Paris. Attends French class at the Sorbonne University and drawing class at the Beaux Arts de Montparnasse
1976: Receives Fine Arts diploma from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (painting section, Mr. Singier's workshop)
1981: Paris, learns tapestry according to the Gobelins traditional technique
1983: Stays in Niger, works leather with Tuaregs
1985: Paris, back to painting, especially acrylic on canvas
1986: Stays in Cameroon, keeps painting (lyrical abstraction)
1988-1990: Paris, studies ancient Egyptian (hieroglyphs) at the Catholic Institute of Paris
1988-1991: Several exhibitions including paintings inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs and Nordic runes
1990-1992: Produces twenty-nine paintings inspired by the landscapes of the European Parliament member countries
1994-1995: Produces a painting eighty meters long inspired by the book Around the World in Eighty days
1996: Twenty-five large-scale paintings intended for an art exhibition in Iceland disappear at Paris-CDG airport and are still missing.
1988-2005: Creation of a slideshow containing twenty-five thousand images of redhead women in the arts.
2006-2007: Creates portraits of redhead women with mixed technics and copper wire.
1970-2009: Study trips to Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Africa etc.
Scholarships :
1990: Icelandic Government
1984 -1986: Icelandic Government
1978: Italian Government
1974-1976: French Government
Last exhibitions:
2018 : Personal exhibition - Gallery Grafik, Reykjavik
2013 : Residency - Gallery Sim, Berlin
2012 : Personal exhibition - Maison Fey, Paris
List of personal exhibitions:
2008: Start Art Gallery, Reykjavik
2007: Asvellir Gallery, Reykjavik
2006: Museum of Witchcraft, Hólmavík
2003: Garbell Gallery, Paris
1996: City Museum, Kópavogur
1994: Stöðlakot Gallery, Reykjavík
1992: City’s Art Center, Blois
1992: Palace of Europe, Strasbourg
1991: Mairie du neuvième arrondissement, Paris
1991: Rose Cross Salon, Paris
1991: Kronenbourg Art Space, Paris
1991: Slúnkaríki Gallery, Ísafjöður
1990: City Museum, Reykjavík
1988: Svart Gallery in Hvítu, Reykjavík
1988: Glerakkirkja church, Akureyri
1988: Center for Contemporary Art, Rouen
1987: Étienne de Causans Gallery, Paris
1986: French Cultural Center, Yaoundé, Cameroon
1986: City Museum, Reykjavík
1985: I.F.C.A.M. Paris
1984: La Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts, Paris
1983: Listmunahúsið Gallery, Reykjavík
1983: French Cultural Center, Niamey, Niger
1980: City Museum, Reykjavík
1974-2007: group exhibitions
2012 : Personal exhibition - Maison Fey, Paris
2013 : Residency, Gallery Sim, Berlin
2018 : Personal exhibition - Gallery Grafik, Reykjavik
Prizes and awards:
1989: Silver medal of the city of Paris
1988: Bronze medal of the city of Athens
1977: Medal of Honor, International Exhibition, Biarritz
1976: Medal of Honor, Salon of Lutécia, Paris
1976: Bronze Medal, French Artists Fair, Paris
1975: Salon of Foreign Artists, Fellows of the French Government
Artworks included in public and private collections of many countries.
Other studies:
1969: Nursing state diploma, Iceland.
1969-1970: Nurse in Cardiology at the National Hospital of Iceland.
1998-2000: Master's degree in Psychoanalysis, University of Paris 8
2003: Master II of Psychoanalysis, University of Paris 8.
1998-2005: Involved in the clinical section of Psychoanalysis in Parisian hospitals
2007-2008: National Guide of Iceland diploma