Ragnar Kjartansson: Weekdays in Arcadia

The first major UK exhibition by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson in over ten years brings together new and recent works in the galleries and landscape. About Spanning painting, sculpture, ceramics and moving image, the exhibition reveals Kjartansson’s distinctive blend of humour and melancholy, alongside new work created in response to Goodwood Art Foundation’s woodland landscape. One of Iceland’s most celebrated contemporary artists, Kjartansson has exhibited at major international institutions including Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the Barbican, where he presented his first major UK retrospective. In the galleries Discover a selection of recent multimedia works including No Tomorrow (2022), a hypnotic six-channel video installation created with choreographer Margrét Bjarnadóttir and composer Bryce Dessner. The Pigott Gallery brings together Weekdays in Arcadia (2025), a series of paintings inspired by Kjartansson’s experience of shepherding in southern Iceland. Drawing on the tradition of the pastoral landscape, the paintings bring together romanticism and irony. In the landscape Created in response to Goodwood's winter landscape, a new outdoor work invites visitors to encounter Kjartansson's work in nature. Nightmare (2026) gives form to fear, drawing on the woodland setting of horror stories and fairy tales. Alongside it, Epic Waste of Love and Understanding (2023) takes the form of a classical monument, exploring love, loss and collective memory through theatrical illusion. Read more Toggle Installation Painting Multi-disciplinary Crafts Sculpture Film / Video Mixed media