Bringing together live performance, music, film, painting, sculpture and drawing, this exhibition is the first to survey the work of the internationally acclaimed Icelandic artist, Ragnar Kjartansson.

‘One of the most celebrated performance artists anywhere’ New York Times

Born into a family of acting professionals and having grown up backstage at the Reykjavik City Theatre, Kjartansson’s work combines his experience of stage traditions with experiments in repetition and endurance.

Clichés and motifs of Western culture, romantic melancholy and even his own conception, provide the personal and often playful subject matter of the artist’s emotionally charged work. Having successfully represented Iceland at the 2009 and 2013 Venice Biennales with standout works, Kjartansson is now at the cutting edge of contemporary performance art.

The exhibition centres around the immersive and moving multi-channel video installation The Visitors (2012) and Take me here by the Dishwasher: Memorial for a Marriage (2011) a live performance full of romance and humour featuring ten troubadours singing all day, every day for the duration. Ragnar Kjartansson will present these spell-binding and multi-sensory experiences amongst a wide-ranging survey, perfectly-timed to shine a spotlight on one of the contemporary art world’s most exciting and evolving artists.

Exhibition curated by the Barbican and organised in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., where a version of the exhibition will be shown from 14 October 2016 to 8 January 2017.

Barbican Art Gallery in London presents major exhibitions by leading international figures in the heart of the City of London.