Fish Factory

Yini Luo, currently based in Shanghai, China, is an artist exploring the concept of reality through diverse media such as printmaking, glass casting, and natural materials installations. She holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Yini’s thought-provoking work has been showcased…

Lorka Scher is a multi-instrumental loop artist, harpist & songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. Her songs have been described as intimate, medicinal and haunting. Drawing from her family’s experience as post-war Soviet refugees, she explores themes of belonging, cultural memory, and ancestral healing in her work. Performing as a one woman “echo orchestra” Lorka blends…

Kristin Sevaldsen is a Norwegian saxophonist, composer and producer currently working on an album trilogy. She joined us for the month of February. You can find more from Kristin on her instagram. The music is based on field recordings from various places, situations, scenarios and countries in the Arctic region. The first album, The Sonic…

Roxane Fiore is a Canadian visual artist currently based in Iceland who draws, in chalk pastels, artworks that are inspired by her paper assemblages. Her interest lies in creating illusory spaces that move away from their original context and question the very ideas of reality and existence. During this February residency, Roxane continued working on…

Amy Engelhardt is a composer/lyricist/playwright from the United States who spent the month of February 2023 at the Fish Factory. Her residency concentrated on two theatre projects as well as being instrumental in our February open house concert and contributing to a strong community spirit within the programme. You can see more from Amy on…

Chengwei Geng (b.1998) is a visual artist based in the UK. She graduated as a Master of Arts in Painting of the RCA, London in 2021. Chengwei is the only child of a Lacanian psychoanalyst mother and a homicide detective father. During her month long stay at the Fish Factory she focussed her attention on documenting moments in time…

Josie is a visual artist based in Dundee, Scotland, her practice explores perceptions of memory and place. Through intentional improvisation she creates atmospheric dreamscapes that shift between photography and painting, evoking feelings of familiarity within the abstract. You can see more of Josie’s work on her Instagram. I’ve loved my 2 month stay here at…

Patricia Huguesm is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Mexico City. Her practice is mainly focused on fashion and textile projects but during her time at the Fish Factory took an exciting detour into ceramics. You can find more of Patricia’s work on her Instagram. “I had a lot of little ideas for my time…

Makenna Hatter is a visual artist from Austin, Texas. She is a recent graduate of Texas State University, with a passion for connecting with people through paint, printmaking and drawing. During her time at the Fish Factory she focused predominantly on painting and worked both with the local community as well as engaging with the…

Claire Ebendinger is a French artist working in Halle, Germany. Her practice draws inspiration from the manipulation of objects found in play. She is eager to reconcile her work with the act of play, while considering the seriousness that’s built in, throughout education. As a result, her work oscillates between creating spontaneously and following rules.…

The residency at the Fish Factory gave me the time and space to connect with myself and the landscape around me. The unprecedented time and isolation acted as a lens on feelings of melancholy and loneliness, two themes current in my work. I felt a connection with the landscape. Iceland is a land torn asunder…

Alexandre Barbé is a sculptor. He defines his work protocol in a few words : “I pay attention to off-the-path-found-places histories; I seek the extraordinary in what was thrown on scrapheap. If I want a story to be told louder, then I think of an intervention.” In Stöðvarfjörður he wrote : “1: Odd pieces of…

Liza Isakov is an artist and art educator based in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Isakov is an emerging artist creating works on paper, her practice draws inspiration from everyday objects and observations. Isakov’s practice begins with documenting simple moments from everyday life, later simplified into basic shapes and colours. She explores and responds to the relationship…

Gillian Pokalo is an interdisciplinary printmaker from the United States, though for five months she is calling Iceland her home. The work she created at the Fish Factory in July is part of an ongoing investigation into the way that nature affects and often eclipses the world made by human hands. With a focus on…

Is an Artist, Painter, and Environmentalist from Ontario Canada, who stayed with us at the residency from April to August. “As a landscape painter, and lover of nature, Iceland has been quite the paradise, I had no shortage of inspiration. My experiences here will without a doubt continue to influence myself and my work for…

  THE RESCUE PROJECT “It’s about love, it’s always about love…” Main actor of my work, doctor for myself, creation has always been a therapeutic journey towards the healing of my deepest wounds. Visual artist by training, I have always had at heart to be at the initiative of all of my artistic pieces, realisings…

Hatiye Garip is an illustrator, comic artist and designer based in Istanbul. She likes to draw birds, flowers and ordinary moments. She is interested in visual storytelling, accessible illustrations and publications. In July, she spent her time at the Fish Factory to warm up for a new comic project. “Recently, I’ve been working on sequential…

rumu acts as a bridge to the dreamworld to spread compassion among all sentient beings…  Check out their work on their website  https://www.rumu.space/ Thank you rumu.  

The Swiss photo duo Rita Kappenthuler and Nathan Federer joined us in June to capture the ever-changing Icelandic sky and the much-expected midnight sun. “Exploring our visual languages through the old, almost “original” camera technique of the camera obscura has been driving us for the past five years. We often define travel time as studio time.…

Sandra Zanetti is a creative practitioner combining independent research, audiovisual compositions, and writing. Their work deconstructs the complexities of underlying systems, stories and ideologies shaped by capital and technology. Zanetti weaves together physical compositions which utilise her unique visual language, woven from a variety of world cultures, iconographies, and socioeconomic theories, examining moments of destruction…

Eva Jörgensen is a medical anthropologist and in June she spent her time at the Factory working on a PhD on the impact of Covid-19 on adolescents in Iceland. I work with all kinds of data but am currently working on transcribing and analysing interviews with adolescents and professionals working with them. My approach is identifying the…

Art professor and artist Kendra Larson spent a good two weeks with us in June where she was stunned by the ever-present daylight. This made her re-think the effects this has on her work as a studier of landscapes, nature and all things mystical. “The Sagas, ice, dramatic landscapes, and northern lights found in Iceland make it…

Jessica Smoleroff is an artist and educator based out of Tallahassee, Florida. With a focus on the figure, her paintings explore sexuality, gender, and the body’s relationship to the environment. She spent May with us creating and sharing her painted hybrid creatures. “Iceland persists. Fecund cod, densely furred dogs, and strong women have adapted to the brutal…

Jody Servon is an artist, activist, educator and curator. Her work has ranged from multimedia installations to public participatory projects with personal experiences always serving as the catalyst. At the Fish Factory, she worked on multiple projects, giving herself space and time to inhabit being an artist. “My work often focuses on sharing people’s lived experiences, histories…