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Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir

Bio

Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, May 2, 1968. She is a writer, artist, literature scholar, curator and teacher. Kristín studied graphic design and fine arts at the The Icelandic College of Art and Crafts, graduating in 1992. She completed a B.A. in comparative literature – minoring in creative writing – from The University of Iceland in 2006, having taken one year as a guest-student at The University of Kopenhagen. In her dissertation Kristín Ragna discussed the art of picture books for children, focusing on the interaction between words and images. In addition to this she holds an M.A. in creative writing, from The University of Iceland, 2016.

Kristín has lectured on creative writing at The University of Iceland and held courses on illustration in children‘s books at the Iceland Arts Academy, in addition to supervising dissertations. She has also hosted various courses and workshops at The Reykjavík School of Arts, among others. Kristín Ragna has written articles about illustrations and visual literacy for literature and cultural journals.

As a curator Kristín has worked a lot with Norse mythology. She curated the exhibition Barnabókaflóðið (The Children’s Book Flood) for the Nordic House in 2018. This exhibition travelled around the Baltic countries in 2020-2021. In addition to this Kristín has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, home and abroad.

Kristín has designed and illustrated numerous books and educational computer games. Furthermore, she has designed and illustrated two tapestries based on Icelandic Sagas, The Saga of Njáll and The Settlement Saga (focusing on the women). The former is being embroidered at the Saga Centre in Hvolfsvöllur and the latter is now a part of The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry.

Kristín has received the Icelandic illustration Award, Dimmalimm in 2009 and 2012 for her illustrations in Norse mythology books Örlög guðanna (The Fates of the Gods) and Hávamál (Sayings of the High One).

Homepage : krg.is