Ragnar Kjartansson | Creative Space

Ragnar Kjartansson’s woodcut Creative Space is a humorous take on workplace dilemmas and privileged 21st century uneasiness.

While becoming an artist, Kjartansson spent several years working in advertising. The large-scale woodcut Creative Space refers to this period in his life and is in homage to the people suffering under the tyranny of creativity. For him, a sign saying “Come in but only with fresh ideas or fresh coffee” is representative of his experience, where a somewhat forced sense of humour, enthusiasm and creativity characterised the workplace. Kjartansson perceived his experience as joyous yet profoundly melancholic; and it was through this realisation that he found the joy of freedom in his own art practice.

Kjartansson’s prints demonstrate his investigations of the technical and aesthetic possibilities of printmaking, as well as his ability to translate the humour and irony of his video and performance works into the printed medium. Permeated by uplifting melancholy, this woodcut conveys the artist’s propensity for finding the comedic potential in tragedy, and his openness for different interpretations of his work.