Melanie Ubaldo has been selected from a group of applicants for a three month residency program at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. 

The residency will run from June – August 2025. The residency program includes 24-hour access to a private furnished studio space; regular studio visits from Visiting Critics; Field Trips to museums, galleries, and other cultural venues; and participation in Artist Talks. Residents become part of a growing network of international artists and curators who are ISCP alumni. An ISCP residency has often led to critical advancement inthe practice of the artist and curators in residence.

“Venice is like Disneyland”, a gondolier said to me while taking me on a ride through the iconic canals. He was dressed in a blue and white striped shirt, with a beige coloured boater hat decorated with a lilac polyester ribbon, like he just jumped out of a cartoon, a caricature of his own culture. “No one is going to live here in a few years”. The guilt of being a tourist in Venice bloomed in my chest.

In this episode of Icelandic Art Center’s Out there podcast Becky and Tinna speak with artists Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir and Unnar Örn, who are board members at Safnasafnið, The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum. The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir in Svalbardseyri, in north Iceland. For over 30 years the founders and board of the museum have focused their attention on collecting work, and often extensive bodies of works, by artists whose contributions to art have existed outside the cultural mainstream and collections, otherwise considered folk, naïve or outsider. We discuss the role of the museum, some of the language around categorizing art and artists, and the summer exhibitions.

The deadline for the autumn application round in 2024 of The Visual Arts Fund is 16.00 on Monday, August 19.

The theme of the Venice biennial this year Stranieri Ovunque or Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, examines the bitter human experience of being seen as, or feeling like an 'outsider'. Unwelcome, cast out, different. Strange. The Italian word straniero, which translates to foreigner, comes from the word strano, which can mean on one hand stranger and on the other hand strange, or weird. Many of the works in the exhibition therefore deal with the experiences of various marginalized groups; immigrants, queer people, disabled people, indigenous people, displaced people, people of various races who have been discriminated against. The works are therefore more often than not coming from artists who are creating art based on their most painful and difficult experiences. As a result, this year's exhibition is quite heavy in many ways and repeatedly leaves you with a deep sigh in your lungs and a profound sense of hopelessness. But my experience has always been that the strongest artworks are those that affect your psyche. Make you feel something.

The 29th biennial Reykjavík Arts Festival takes place from the 1st to the 16th of June, 2024. The celebration includes 38 diverse exhibitions, performances, and concerts held within the capital region, as well as various locations around Iceland.

The Huet Repolt residency in Belgium will offer its yearly residency period in 2025 to an Icelandic artist.

The theme and title of the 60th international exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is Foreigners Everywhere. In the main exhibition, at both Arsenale and Giardini, as well as in national pavilions, migration is widely highlighted alongside traditions and ways of living for indigenous peoples around the world. Many artists utilise their religions and traditions as the framework to define their experiences and identities in the art works and installations on display this Biennale season, drawing close attention to the ethnic legacies and social milieus they come from. 

Icelandic or Iceland-based visual artists can apply for travel grants for exhibitions, projects, and residences abroad taking place around June — September 2024. The deadline is June 1.