Erfiðleikar - 1. a difficult play, 2. a struggle

Local foreigner - 1. a person who is not native to the place of residence, but has been settled in long enough to grow roots into the land

Erfiðleikar is about navigating through life—from one end of existence to the other. It reflects on mundane moments that combine to bend the arc of one’s life in a direction fundamentally different from where it began. The exhibition centers on artists from different backgrounds and countries whose paths, by choice or circumstance, have led them to making Iceland their home. Each has experienced, in different ways, the act of uprooting themselves from the ground they grew from and planting themselves in entirely different soil. Like a transplanted plant recognizing the nutrients of new land, there is a desire to take root—but sometimes rooting into unfamiliar terrain can also mean encountering its roughness and coldness.

Through their work, the artists reflect on how much of “there” remains and how much of “here” they have absorbed. Their perspectives offer different ways of understanding what it means to belong, to be seen, and to recognize oneself in a new context. Together, they are not weeds in a garden, rather they add a richness and variety to its diversity.

The artists in the exhibition include Julie Sjöfn Gasiglia (b.1990, IS/FR), Natka Klimowicz (b.1992, IS/PL), Pola Sutryk (b.1994, IS/PL), Patty Spyrakos (b.1974, IS/US), Adam Flint Taylor (b.1989, IS/US), Clare Aimée (b.1992, IS/CA), and Vikram Pradhan (b.1997, IS/IN). Together, the artists reflect on their personal journeys and immigrant experiences.

The project also aims to foster a broader discussion around immigration by organizing open forums and “safe zone” conversations throughout the duration of the exhibition. These gatherings will provide a platform where both immigrants and locals can actively listen, share, and engage in meaningful dialogue about belonging, movement, and identity.

ADAM FLINT TAYLOR (b.1989, IS/US) 

Adam Flint Taylor is an independent designer and educator working between the United States and Iceland. He  graduated with an MFA in Design from the University of California, Davis, and is currently the Program Director  of Visual Communication at Listaháskóli Íslands. He has over 15 years of experience in collaborating with artists,  architects, museums, theaters and other civic organizations on exhibitions, experiments, identities, printed materials, etc. Current research interests: connections between graphic design and free states, capitalism/anti-capital ism and utopia(s). 

CLARA AIMÉE (b.1992, IS/CA) 

Clare Aimée is a Métis Canadian artist that has been working in Iceland for the last 10 years. She graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Icelandic University of the Arts in 2020 and in 2019 went on academic exchange at The  Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. In her practice she often works with performative gestures and  interactive experience – inviting people into familiar frameworks with poetic fellowship as a goal. Her work has  been shown in Switzerland, Chile, Czech Republic, Portugal, Iceland, Denmark, Greece and Canada. 

JULIE SJÖFN GASIGLIA (b.1990, IS/FR) 

Julie Sjöfn Gasiglia is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Iceland since 2013. At the core of her practice, she explores narratives around the connection between humans and more-than-humans; through sculptures, installations or sound.  Experimenting with ways to relate and communicate with different living beings, within the human species and beyond. Challenging the boundaries between Human and Nature. She graduated with a Master's in Fine Art from the Icelandic University of the Arts in 2024. She was nominated for the motivational Art Prize of the Icelandic Art Centre this year.

NATKA KLIMOWICZ (b.1992, IS/PL) 

Natka Klimowicz is a visual artist specialised in poster design and illustration, recently exploring sculpture, painting and art installation, and based in Iceland since 2017. Her work explores the emotional landscape of humans,  at times equally silly as serious; trying to catch the absurd contrast of our ever changing moods, the blink, the smirk, the spark. She is a graphic design and printmaking graduate from University of Arts in Poznan, her work has been exhibited and awarded within the country and internationally.  

PATTY SPYRAKOS (b.1974, IS/US) 

Patty Spyrakos is a mixed media sculptor based in Iceland since 2020. She graduated with a BS in Psychology/ Anthropology from Loyola University Chicago where she focused on Sensory Systems/Perception, and Evolutionary Psychology; she studied ceramics at the Lincoln Square Pottery Studio in Chicago. Her work is driven largely by process in relation to experimentation with material, while content is often informed by environmental  influences based on residency or show location. Her body of work carries underlying themes tied to an evolution of psyche, transitory states, and the formation of bonds between self and society. She has exhibited in Chicago, L.A, Hong Kong, Reykjavík, and New York.

POLA SUTRYK (b.1994, IS/PL) 

Pola Sutryk is an artist and cook working between art, food, and social practice, based in Iceland since 2019. Her practice revolves around cooking, understood as processes of energy exchange, carried out with respect for all participants: those who cook, those who eat, and those who are eaten. Treating food as a relational medium, she explores interdependence, queer ecologies, ritual, and the politics of eating, inviting audiences to renegotiate their relations with human and more-than-human world through sensory engagement. Her works, usually combining elements of installation and participatory performance, have been shown e.g. at Sequences in Reykjavik, the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, and festivals such as Unsound, Ephemera, and Konteksty in Poland.

VIKRAM PRADHAN (b.1994, IS/PL) 

Vikram is an artist from India who lives and works in Iceland. He graduated with an MA in Design, Speculative  Design and Applied Arts, from Listaháskóli Íslands (2021). He works across design media to create pataphysical  artworks that are fundamentally psychological and relate to absurdism. He is a visual artist and filmmaker who  has exhibited in museums and festivals in Iceland, the V&A Museum, London and India. His work is centered  around research into speculative design and pataphysics, and draws heavily on experiments in filmmaking and  photography, emotion and behavior.