10.4.—11.5.2025

In the studio gallery, Kohta continues the series of exhibitions by younger Nordic artists.

In April and early May, Brák Jónsdóttir (Iceland, 1996, lives in Bergen) presents ‘Host’, an installation whose title evokes both the act of hosting and the entities that engage in it. Recent works from two different series, Flowers and Osseous Bodies (both 2023) participate in the effort.

These contain medium-sized sinuous sculptures reminiscent of animal bones or plants. The pieces, displayed on the floor and on wall-mounted shelves, are somehow laid-back but appear acutely aware of the organic energy coded into them. Brák has pieced together leftover scraps from a company where people can come and do their own woodwork, negative forms whose shapes were effectively determined by other customers’ sawing choices, and the resulting compositions have been padded out with clay.

The colourful Flowers seem to emulate carved floral decorations rather than real blossoming plants, while the bone-white surfaces of Osseous Bodies have been touched up, here and there, with pink pigment that simulates the faint blush of pulsating life.

Brák speaks of ‘whale fall’ as a reference or inspiration for the latter series. When a whale dies it sinks slowly to the bottom of the ocean and becomes the host for a multitude of other lifeforms that feast on its carcass, some of them not found anywhere else. The full breakdown of this enormous organism may take decades.

Despite their approachable format and agreeable surface – what we might be tempted to call their ‘visual conviviality’ – the works in ‘Host’ are highly constructed mediations of imagery and objecthood, ready to participate in any conversation about the agency and potency of sculpture today.

Brák Jónsdóttir holds a BA degree in fine arts from the Iceland University of the Arts in Reykjavik. She is currently pursuing an MA in degree in fine arts at the Bergen Art Academy in Norway. In recent years she has had solo exhibitions at Einkasafnið in Eyjafjarðarsveit, northern Iceland, in 2024 and at HIAP in Suomenlinna, Helsinki, and the Nordic House in Reykjavik, both in 2023. The series Osseous Bodies was premiered at the group exhibition ‘Goodgonebadwrong’ at Nýlistasafnið/The Living Art Museum in Reykjavík in 2023, curated by its director Sunna Ástþórsdóttir.