Sigrún i Ólöf Einarsdóttir

Ólöf Einarsdóttir 

Graduated from the Textiles Department at the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts, Reykjavik, Iceland, 1985.

She has participated in 12 individual and 40 group exhibitions in Iceland and abroad, including: Glass Threads, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark, 2004/2005, and in the Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2005 (with Søren S. Larsen and Sigrún Einarsdóttir); the Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass 2006, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Coburg, Germany; the 11th International Triennial of Tapestry, Łódź, Poland, 2011; European Glass Context, Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Bornholm, Denmark, 2012.
 
Her works are presented in national and private collections in Iceland and abroad, including the Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen; the Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik; and the Kopavogur Art Museum – Gerðarsafn, Kópavogur, Iceland.

In 1988 she began working with horsehair and also with sisal, which she would separate out into individual stands and then reform into her pieces. Most of her work references Iceland and its traditions, culture and history. In 2002, she started working collaboratively with her sister Sigrún Einarsdóttir, a prominent glass artist in Iceland.

Sigrún Einarsdóttir

Graduated from the School of Decorative Art (presently, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts), Copenhagen, Denmark, 1979. She was the first woman to graduate from this school as a glass designer and the first person to graduate from glass in Iceland.

In 1982, with Søren S. Larsen, she opened Gler i Bergvik glass studio, Reykjavik, the first glass workshop in Iceland. Since 2003 she has been running it herself. Since 2002 Sigrún Einarsdóttir has co-operated with her sister, the Iceland textile artist. From 2007 she has been teaching the glass course at the Reykjavik School of Visual Art, Reykjavik.

She has participated in 15 individual and about 50 group exhibitions in Iceland and abroad in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and USA, including: the International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 1990, Kanazawa, Japan; Glass Threads, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark, 2004/2005, and in the Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen, 2005 (with Søren S. Larsen and Ólöf Einarsdóttir); the Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass 2006, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Coburg, Germany; European Glass Context, Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Bornholm, Denmark, 2008, 2012; 30 Years of Hot Glass, the Kopavogur Art Museum – Gerðarsafn, Kópavogur, Iceland; and Inspired By Nature, Hempel Glass Museum, Nykøbing, Denmark, 2013. 
 
Her works are presented in exhibited and private collections in Iceland and abroad, including the Museum of Design and Applied Art, Garðabær, Iceland; the Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen; the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft; Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg; the mudac – Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland; Glasmuseum Rheinbach, Rheinbach, Germany; the Swedish Glass Museum, Växjö, Sweden; the Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimäki, Finland; Wertheim Glasmuseum, Wertheim, Germany; Toyama City Institute of Glass Art (TIGA), Toyama, Japan; the Kopavogur Art Museum – Gerðarsafn, Kópavogur; the Borowsky Collection of Contemporary Glass, Pennsylvania, USA. 
 
One of her works, as a gift from the President of Iceland to the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, is exhibited in the Palace of Christian VII in Copenhagen. She was awarded the Kunsthåndværkerprisen af 1879 (Danish Craft Award of 1879, presented by the Queen), a bronze medal, in 1979.