Valgerður Sigurðardóttir Iceland, b. 1992

Biography
VALGERÐUR SIGURÐARDÓTTIR (°1992. Reykjavik, Iceland. Lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.), ‘Vala’ in short, received her master’s degree in Sculpture at KASK, Ghent, Belgium and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp, Belgium prior to that as an Erasmus exchange student from the Icelandic Academy of Arts where she finished her bachelor’s degree. In 2017 she co-founded ABC Klubhuis. Since 2013 she took part in numerous group exhibitions in Reykjavik, Oslo, Ghent, Antwerp, Romania, …
Contrary to the materials she uses, Vala’s works are very light-hearted. In a child-like, seemingly naive way she portrays the extremely quotidian and ordinary to the point of the absurd. Little scenes of people at the dinner table, a woman on the toilet reading a newspaper, someone entering the room… and nothing more. They almost feel like pages straight out of children’s book. Drawing is a crucial factor in Vala’s creative process. The direct, spontaneous gesture, done in materials she can’t erase (charcoal) are the ideal means to conjure up stories that were haunting her mind in the most intuitive way. Very personal memories, dreams and fantasies are the fuel for telling a quite universal story that leaves as much room as possible for the viewer’s own associations.

Memories often cling onto the smallest things, rather than to big narratives. As human beings we are necessarily bound to our daily routines: repetitive actions through which we develop a set of habits that create something permanent: quasi-stable anchors which allow us to face the transient and make us necessarily bound to a world of tangible things. Perhaps therefore in dreams it’s often the place, space or house which turns out to be the signifier of what goes on inside. We cannot think without context, nor think up anything that doesn’t have a context. The works of Vala zoom in on exactly this: the everyday scenery as a condition that makes our imagination, memories or dreams possible. A crucial world, more than a mere functional, random or banal necessity, but one that generates meaning.

Vala makes heavy, concrete (and tiled) pieces that beautifully emphasise the gravity of the everyday. She only works with materials which are used to build houses and which she made herself from scratch as a reference to the architectural, concrete design of our lives, a reference to our being-in-the-world. Her standing sculptures also interfere with the space, with the viewer’s movements. They become new walls we must walk around, like a room divider we have to peak behind to know the whole story which inevitably makes us part of the scene. You can’t avoid feeling like a peeping-tom and playing along with a smile.

Lauren Wiggers

Works
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Aftermath, 2025
    Aftermath, 2025
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Flood of Sins, 2025
    Flood of Sins, 2025
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Slow Down Dad, 2025
    Slow Down Dad, 2025
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Venus in Libra, 2025
    Venus in Libra, 2025
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, True Reflection, 2024
    True Reflection, 2024
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Adrift, 2023
    Adrift, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Balloons, 2023
    Balloons, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Bathing the Spirit, 2023
    Bathing the Spirit, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Binocular scene, 2023
    Binocular scene, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Cliffhanger, 2023
    Cliffhanger, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Cool Dog, 2023
    Cool Dog, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Embrace, 2023
    Embrace, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Gloomy Sunday, 2023
    Gloomy Sunday, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Head Down, 2023
    Head Down, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Headless, 2023
    Headless, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Hidden, 2023
    Hidden, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Hiding, 2023
    Hiding, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Hocus Focus, 2023
    Hocus Focus, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, I Miss You / Let's Not Fight, 2023
    I Miss You / Let's Not Fight, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Meeting, 2023
    Meeting, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Mother, 2023
    Mother, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Parrot series, 2023
    Parrot series, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Parrot series, 2023
    Parrot series, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Prankster, 2023
    Prankster, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Rat & Parrot, 2023
    Rat & Parrot, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Rifle Display, 2023
    Rifle Display, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Swipe Left, 2023
    Swipe Left, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Tent series, 2023
    Tent series, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Tent series, 2023
    Tent series, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, The Fog, 2023
    The Fog, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Through the Fog: Egg, 2023
    Through the Fog: Egg, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Untitled (Talking to an Angel series), 2023
    Untitled (Talking to an Angel series), 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Untitled (Talking to an Angel series), 2023
    Untitled (Talking to an Angel series), 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Untitled (Talking to an Angel series), 2023
    Untitled (Talking to an Angel series), 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Voyage, 2023
    Voyage, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Waiting, 2023
    Waiting, 2023
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Sinking, 2021
    Sinking, 2021
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Building I, 2020
    Building I, 2020
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, House, 2020
    House, 2020
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Scenes: Where is Rita?, 2020
    Scenes: Where is Rita?, 2020
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, So Long, 2020
    So Long, 2020
  • Valgerður Sigurðardóttir, Strange Message, 2020
    Strange Message, 2020
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
Publications
News