'The Brown Period' is a yearlong exhibition by Ragnar Kjartansson at i8 Grandi. This presentation, which is Kjartansson’s sixth solo show at i8, opened on 18 January and will be on view until 18 December 2025. Throughout the year, the artist will exhibit both new and existing works.

'The Brown Period' is an extended project, intended to be a dive into the realms of the experimental. As i8 Grandi is a short walk from Kjartansson’s studio, the artist will treat the gallery as a project space where lucky strikes and failure collides. For the artist, the bass drum in the project space will be new video works and studio shorts, mixing drama, music, and cinematic indulgence. The works on view will continue to change throughout the year as the show evolves.

For the fourth installation of The Brown Period, i8 presents Kjartansson’s 'A Whole lot of Muses' from 2019 and 'Steak (Variation on Meat Joy)' from 2013. Conceived in homage to Carolee Schneemann’s 'Meat Joy', a 1964 performative work by the groundbreaking feminist conceptualist, Kjartansson’s 'Steak (Variation on Meat Joy)' exemplifies formality and restraint, in contrast to Schneemann’s untamed indulgence. Originally performed at London’s Tate Modern as part of the BMW Tate Live series, Kjartansson’s video features ten figures, including the artist, in period costume inside a Rococo-style dining room. Each table of diners eats a steak, which sits unceremoniously devoid of sides or drinks on a plate, as the sound of chewing resonates in the room. Each gnaw of the meat and cut of the knife is amplified by table microphones, and the monotony of the meal takes centre stage throughout the 23-minute and 11-second video. As everyone finishes their steak, the video concludes.     

Starting in the front room of the exhibition, Kjartansson’s 'A Whole lot of Muses' fill the space. The sculptural grayscale paintings stand within the gallery, each propped up as if part of a theatrical set. First presented at Kjartansson’s 2019 solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the work's crude build and brush strokes radiate with patriarchal ridiculousness and creative energy while channelling classical Greek and Roman goddess depictions.

Spanning far longer than traditional museum or gallery shows, i8 Grandi’s programming focuses on concepts of space and time. The sustained duration of the annual format allows artists to consider how time affects their work, and the fluidity encourages audiences to revisit the changing installations. Kjartansson’s is the fourth year-long presentation at i8 Grandi, following exhibitions by Andreas Eriksson in 2024, B. Ingrid Olson in 2023, and Alicja Kwade in 2022.

Ragnar Kjartansson engages multiple artistic mediums, creating video installations, performances, drawings, and paintings that draw upon myriad historical and cultural references. An underlying pathos and irony connect his works, with each deeply influenced by the comedy and tragedy of classical theater. The artist blurs the distinctions between mediums, approaching his painting practice as performance, likening his films to paintings, and his performances to sculpture. Throughout, Kjartansson conveys an interest in beauty and its banality, and he uses durational, repetitive performance as a form of exploration.

Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976) lives and works in Reykjavík. Kjartansson has had solo exhibitions at major venues including: The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Reykjavík Art Museum; the Barbican Centre, London; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Park, Washington D.C.; the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and De Pont Museum, Tilburg, among others. Kjartansson participated in The Encyclopedic Palace at the Venice Biennale in 2013, Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2014, and he represented Iceland at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The artist received the 2019 Ars Fennica Award and was the recipient of the 2015 Artes Mundi’s Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award, as well as Performa’s 2011 Malcolm McLaren Award.