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40 A T L A N T I C A
decided to make a long-term commitment to cul-
ture, because art and culture are important to build
a society,” says Anne Folke, manager of the
Carnegie Art Award, from her office on a day that
she’s actually supposed to be on holiday. “Art is a
way to communicate, express feelings, give interest
to deeper values that bring people together. Art starts
a discussion, a debate.”
So what can one expect from this year’s exhibition?
“This year’s exhibition will be one of the most excit-
ing ones we have had. It was a tremendous job for the
jury to make selections this year. There will be an
interesting variation on the different ways to use
painting as an expression in art,” says Folke.
Judging by the work of the participating finalists, art
enthusiasts can expect more than just a show of tra-
ditional oil and canvas. A discussion and a debate on
social norms, as well as what constitutes painting,
will surely ensue.
“We have chosen to work with painters, but we
have let the artists decide where the borders of
painting lie,” Folke says proudly.
Those nebulous borders are stretched to the limit
by Icelandic
artist Katrín
Sigurdardóttir,
one of the 25
finalists. She
was actually sur-
prised to have
been nominated
for the Carnegie
Art Award since
her work is far
from that of the
common carica-
ture of the artist,
paint brush in
hand, sitting in
front of a blank
canvas.
“My work is
site-specific, architectural scales and
installations,” Sigurdardóttir says
from New York, a place she calls
home when she’s not in
Reykjavík. “My work usually
becomes part of the architec-
ture of the space that it is in.”
Sigurdardóttir has spent much of her
adult years travelling between Iceland
and the US, having earned her BA from
the San Francisco Art Institute and her
MFA from Rutgers University in New
Jersey. Her creations have been mould-
ed from this perpetual movement; she
renders her environmental backdrops
into visual forms of architecture and
geography.
“There are two different axes in
retelling the reality we live in: space and
time. History is generally seen as a time-
lined account of the world, whereas
geography is the method of accounting
for the world spatially. I think this is how
I tell my story, through spatial represen-
tations.”
That the Carnegie Art Award 2002 will
open its exhibition in Reykjavík is a
major plus for Icelandic artists. Even
though the project supports artists
throughout the Scandinavian countries,
this year’s exhibition should infuse the
local art scene.
Opening the show here will focus the
attention “of those outside of the art
world on to Reykjavík”, says
Sigurdardóttir. “The more visibility that
art gets in Iceland, the better. It’s really
important for people to understand that
there are so many Icelandic artists being
THE CARNEGIE ART AWARD 2002
A
R
T
ARTIST: NE GJERDEVIK
ARTIST: MAX BOOK
ARTIST: ELINA BROTHERUS
040-44 ATL502 Carn.Art-rm 19.8.2002 8:31 Page 40