Ragnar Kjartansson
Weekdays in Arcadia
RAGNAR KJARTANSSON
The first major UK exhibition by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson in over ten years brings together new and recent works across our galleries and landscape. 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.
Book in advance and enjoy £10 admission with our early booking offer.
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.
Art in the landscape
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) brings her singular vision to the South Downs with an iconic example of her large-scale sculptures
Lee Ufan
Installed within the Foundation’s landscape, a large-scale sculpture from Ufan's Relatum series will invite visitors to experience a heightened awareness of space, material and presence.
Latest News
Press Release | Recent and newly commissioned work by Ragnar Kjartansson for winter show at Goodwood Art Foundation
Goodwood Art Foundation will present Weekdays in Arcadia, the first major UK exhibition by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson in over ten years, opening on 26 November and running until 12 April 2027.
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