Anna Choutova is 22 year old Swedish painter based in London. She chose our residency because the idea of isolation, remoteness and disconnection from outer world and cities seemed to be suitable at the time.

“In London I was getting so anxious of city living and there was just no time for yourself, even if you’re alone – you still had all the noise of the outside world just in your head.. And my work was just becoming super effected by living in urban place. I knew exactly what my paintings would be before I even did them and just started killing my love for my art, so I though -ok – I need total change of atmosphere, I need somewhere where I can just be in quiet and not have distractions and then see what comes out. So I came here.”

Anna was working on paintings that hopefully will be included in her upcoming exhibition in London called “BAD ART 2”. You can read more about exhibition here:

BAD ART by DAZED: http://bit.ly/2dxvex1
BAD ART by NOTION: http://bit.ly/2dYCTGq

BAD ART 2 by Creators Project: http://bit.ly/2d8bEGM
BAD ART 2 by NOTION: http://bit.ly/2dQN2zO

/ Check her artwork /
http://www.annachoutova.com

Full interview with Anna is on our YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/iFg8b9wWVPA?list=PLv37xlpmRFDiQcfMATVKxD6OaH3H3XYhm

Thank you Anna!

Jesús Portal  is an ‪artist‬ from Spain and stayed in ‪Art Residency‬ for August. He’s an art teacher and writing an art education book for High–School students in Spain. The architecture of town, villages of Iceland and Fish Factory has been the main source of inspiration. Camera, music and Stöðvarfjörður was combined into the mural he was working.

The main creative field he is working on – artistic education. His education is linked to being an artist in contemporary art, visual culture. This book is being produced by Jesús himself and his one of the good friends Lucia Ordoñez.
Everybody loves Iceland for its’ nature: mountains, waterfalls, glacier and so on. So do I, but my artistic background so connected to architecture and geometry, so I fell in love with the architecture of this place, that’s why I decided to do a mural inspired by the nature’. All the small details of the architecture: color, corners, frames, fences joined in one dialog for a mural. The outcome seemed to become surrealistic abstract new village.

Jesús’s educational blog: https://saberversaberhacer.wordpress.com
more of his artwork: www.jesusportal.es

here’s an interview with Jesús:

Thank You, Jesús!

Benjamin Whitney Buhl is a third–year MFA program student at University of South Florida, USA, specialises in Multidisciplinary program in found object sculpting. Ben choose our Factory for Residency because of, as he says ‘Vibe’ – he was feeling really fitting in our ‘always in progress’ mood.

‘The less distractions – the better for the residency’ he says. This is why Iceland was a good country to book residency in – just silence in artistic chaos. Ben was getting energy from fjord’s mountains that surround residency and getting greener and greener everyday he stayed here. The endless openness of Atlantic Ocean at the end of the fjord was one of the ‘extremely intensely beautiful’ things that Ben did not expect before his arrival..

Full story from Ben’s lips in interview bellow:

Thank you Ben!

Nele is a contemporary artist from Hamburg, Germany. She stayed with us during the months of May, June and July 2016. Her field of work is new media, from installations made with textile, to works of photography, audio and video. During her period of residency she did a lot of audio recordings in the surroundings and started to make an science-fiction audioplay, connected to the nature of Iceland. Also she took a lot of photographs and was fascinated by the strange fog of Stödvafjördur that inspired her very much to pick up the pencils and draw again.

Thank you Nele!

Marine Schneider is an illustrator from Brussels, Belgium. She came to the Fish Factory as an Artist in Residency in June 2016 with a specific project in mind, but the impact that the surrounding landscapes and the factory itself had on her made her change her mind completely. She started to experiment with wood, by turning her drawings on paper into 3D sculptures made out of leftovers wood. Quickly, the sculptures became less and less controlled and more and more inspired by the shapes of the pieces of wood she could find.

Marine´s web site:  http://marineschneider.com/

Thank you, Marine!

Lavinia Hanachiuc is a Romanian-born ceramic artist and fine art photographer. She stayed with us during May 2016. Her work originates from an organic mélange of eastern European folklore and superstitions, Latin blood and memories from a childhood lived under an oppressive political regime. Her work is at times following the materials and it’s very short lived , designed to interact with the audience at community events.    Hanachiuc  has resided in the United States since completing her university studies and has continued to create art and teach the thrill of chasing ideas and making beautiful objects to a wide audience. She is based in Ann Arbor , Mi.

check out more of her work: https://www.etsy.com/people/almapottery

Here you can watch an interview we did with her:

Thank you, Lavinia!

Marisa is a contemporary jeweller and artist from Tasmania, Australia but currently lives in Norway. She undertook a residency in May 2016 to research the coastline of the east coast of Iceland. Her practice focuses on the appropriation and translation of textures and fragments, collected from walks along island shorelines. What is found is an interesting reflection on the island’s coast. Often it explores migration, plastic debris from industry, geology, marine life etc. Marisa takes the fragments and their secret narratives in the studio and translates them into wearable objects.

By doing so, she creates a collective and visual dialogue about an island, as each island is unique.

Check out more of her work: See more of her work:
http://marisamolin.com/

Watch Marisa´s interview here:

Thank you, Marisa!

Sine is an artist from Copenhagen, working mainly with architectural themes and space-based projects. She was in Residency at the Fish Factory during the month of April 2016. Her work here went from an installation drawing to a research about the village and the changing of it since the Fish Factory shut down.

You can browse her web:
http://www.sinelindholm.com/

You can watch interview with her here:

Thank you, Sine!

Morgan is a mixed media artist from Burlingame, California and she stayed with us during April 2016. She likes to create work around daily moments- conversations, dialogue, emotions- and try to capture them so they are not forgotten. She is interested in the combination of our real life experiences and our imaginary or emotional experiences as we live life. She likes to experiment with different techniques and mediums (like rocks in Stöðvarfjörður!), rip up the pages to tinier and tinier pieces, and make things on a messy desk.

You can see more of her work here:
http://morganjulianamurphy.weebly.com/

And see her interview here:

Thank you, Morgan!

Laura Arena is an artist, designer, curator, and writer living in New York City and sometimes in other places. She stayed with us during the months of March and April 2016.

For her project in Iceland and to be continued in Greenland she made a  site where you can see the work:
http://www.lauraarena.com/

Her interview here:

Thank you, Laura!

Lana is an artist from Gent (Belgium) and stayed with us in Residency for the month of March in 2016. Her works are usually wall drawings, taking inspiration from geometry and conceptualism. During her stay she worked with 3D forms and the representation of rocks in photography and through computer work. Following the same ideas she did an amazing installation.

If you want to see more of Lana’s work you can visit her website http://lanaschneider.be/

Watch her interview here:

Thank you, Lana!

David Andrew is a writer and a  poet from the UK and he was an artist in Residency during March 2016. David is a member of the Green Party in UK and he spent his time here reading and writing about how to get by with less things.

Website as poet and company director:
http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/index.php

You can watch David´s interview here:

Thank you, David!

 Simeon is a sustainable designer and craftsman working with seaweed who stayed with us during February 2016. Originally from Liverpool, UK, In Stöðvarfjörður he worked to create pieces from local seaweeds. He created a small range of lamps and other objects from dried seaweed which did not require any other materials or adhesives. These pieces are also completely disposable, and once wet, will fall apart. Part of the beauty of these pieces is just that – they are ephemeral and can return to nature as compostable waste with just a small amount of water.

Artist web:
http://www.studiosimeon.com/

Simeon Interview:

Lucy Willow is a british artist who stayed with us for the month of July 2015. She proposed to generate a new body of drawings, sound recordings and written narrative responding directly to the location. She is interested in giving form to the idea of liminal space, the imagined space of limbo, a space possibly between life and death.

Here, you can find more of her amazing work:

www.lucywillow.org

Tara Benjamin is an artist from UK, who lives and works between London and Oxford. She stayed with us during the month of December 2015, looking for something new to let the “everyday” go.

She was interested in immerse herself into the landscape surroundings here and thus challenge her works, getting into much larger pieces. The physical and psychological space that would be reflected in her work played a big role in the motivation of Tara to come here.

You can see more of what she is doing and she has done:

http://alexanderbenjamin.co.uk

Moony is a south korean artist, based in London. She stayed in Residency for the month of December 2015.

Her work combines abstract drawings, sculptures and installation, using a variety of materials. Moony wanted to take inspiration from the winter here.

You can visit her web:

http://mooniperry.com/

Catie stayed with us during the month of November 2015. She is the founding principal of the art and architecture firm, Alibi Studio and an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan. Her work and research captures spaces and material effects, focusing on the development of atmospheres through the exploration of textures, volumes, and the effects of light and darkness.Newell’s creative practice has been widely recognized for exploring design construction and materiality in relationship to location and geography, and cultural contingencies.

Before joining the University of Michigan as the Oberdick Fellow in 2009, Newell was a project designer at Office dA in Boston.

You can see more about her here:
http://www.cathlynnewell.com

Oscar is an illustrator from Taipei who stayed with us during September 2015. He studied information management in university and barely painted or do some artworks before 2011. He says he started painting in 2011 because of a heart-broken accident. Initially, he just wanted to paint something to release sorrow. In the process, he found there was so much fun in painting. He started posting works on the internet and then received some positive feedbacks. In his experience, he learned how to paint after painting. During his residency here he was interested  about the melting of the Arctic Sea.

To see his work:
http://www.oscartsai.com/

Émilie Bernard was a Canadian artist who was here during August and September 2015.
Her motivation to come to the Residency was influenced by a previously stay in Iceland, which affected a lot her way of making art. Émilie worked in a lot of drawings coming from an sculpture background and using elements to create motifs and patterns, repeating simple lines, shapes and forms to compose complex images.

You can see more of the project she developed with us and her other interesting work here:
http://emilie-bernard.com/home.html

Jessica stayed with us for a month in the summer, August 2015. She comes from the US and she says she is continually in the search for “light and laughter”, which she certainly brought to us. Jessica is interested in imagined landscapes and creatures from faraway places. Her time at the Residency was an approach for her to the “landscape of the soul”, working in a lot of medias: ceramic, drawing, painting and installations…

You can see more of her wide work and her biography here:
http://www.jessicagaddis.com/

Meet Jessica here:

Thank you, Jessica!

Grace Fechner is an Artist from the United States. She stayed with us for the summer months of June, July and August in 2015. During her stay Grace made a brilliant mural that now brightens the hallway in the Factory.

If you want to see more of her works you can visit www.gracefechner.net

Olivia Hancock is an Artist and a Writer from England and she spent May – June 2015 with us working on her paintings and novel. Olivia was also fond of the attic in the factory and spent some good times up there splashing some paint around while working on her big paintings.

Olivia showed some of her works in the Factory during her stay and you can see them and many more here: www.olivia-hancock.tumblr.com

Olivia´s interview here!

Thank you, Olivia!

Veit Schmoll is a German photographer who spent the April of 2015 with us and made some pretty impressive installations for his photo shootings up on the attic of the factory. He spent most of his stay in a thermal overall (except when he played the drums), although the attic is aesthetically interesting and photogenic, it is also freezing cold in that season! 

Here www.veitschmoll.com and here www.veitschmollphotography.tumblr.com  you can see some of his works and here www.soundcloud.com/phyte you can find his musical creations.

Veit talking about his experience as an Artist in Residency here:

Thank you, Veit!