Opnun: Nína, okkar kærasta Nína

Nína, Our Dearest Nína

Nína, Our Dearest Nína sheds new light on the life, work and legacy of Nína Sæmundsson (1892–1965), one of the pioneering figures of Icelandic sculpture. Nína lived and worked abroad for much of her life, from Copenhagen and Paris to the United States, where she established a successful career as a sculptor. Her story has often been told as that of an Icelandic country girl who ventured out into the world and found success. This exhibition turns instead towards other aspects of her life, work and relationships.

The exhibition approaches Nína from a queer perspective, placing her work in dialogue with new works by Diljá Þorvaldsdóttir, Jo Pawlowska, Olga Bergmann, Sabine A. Fischer and Victoria Ahrens. Taking Nína’s works as their point of departure, the artists open them to new interpretations exploring themes such as chosen family, intimacy and care, identity, childhood, nature and transformation.

Through this intergenerational dialogue, Nína emerges not only as a historical figure, but as an artist whose life and work continue to raise new questions. The exhibition invites us to reconsider her place within Icelandic art history while bringing her significance within Iceland’s queer art history to the fore.

Artists: Nína Sæmundsson, Diljá Þorvaldsdóttir, Jo Pawlowska, Olga Bergmann, Sabine A. Fischer and Victoria Ahrens

Curators: Viktoría Guðnadóttir and Dr Ynda Eldborg

The exhibition opens during Ljósanótt on 3 September at 18:00 at Reykjanes Art Museum and continues until 29 November 2026.

The exhibition is supported by the Museum Fund of Iceland, the Icelandic Visual Arts Fund and The National Film Archive of Iceland.