Gíslína Dögg Bjarkadóttir (1975) was born in Akureyri, but has lived in Vestmannaeyjar since 2006. She graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2004 in textile and fashion design and has also completed teaching qualifications in arts for primary and secondary schools. Gíslína has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Iceland and abroad and held several solo exhibitions in Iceland. She was named town artist of Vestmannaeyjar in 2014.
In her works, Gíslína has mainly been working with women and refers her work to the many women who over the centuries have done their important work in silence – it can be said that it is an ode to all the anonymous women who created history, art and life. These women linked the chain of life of the generations together, lived as anonymous everyday heroes and are forgotten by most people today. Since 2018, Gíslína has focused more on printmaking, but painting has had a big place in her work throughout the years, as well as she has had installations and the performance “”365 dresses”” lasted for a whole year, which ended with an auction and the proceeds were used to set up a website related to breast cancer.
Women are still the most prominent in Gíslína’s works, although nature is also involved. Patterns based on Sigurður Guðmundsson’s patterns are also prominent in Gíslína’s work, but she actually plays with the patterns, changes them and takes them further. These patterns have strong ties to the women of the past, because most of them can be found in embroidery in women’s national costumes.

I take old Icelandic patterns, change them and reuse them. These patterns appear in my paintings and printing works.