NORDIC TEXTILE TAKEOVER | OPENING CELEBRATION
September 12—2:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Scandinavia House, in partnership with New York Textile Month, is pleased to present the third iteration of NORDIC TEXTILE TAKEOVER, an exhibition, workshop series, and symposium highlighting contemporary Nordic Textiles, coinciding with NY Textile Month in New York City. Featuring an exhibition in the Scandinavia House gallery, the program includes artist talks, a reception, and hands-on workshops. The exhibition opens on Friday, September 4, to Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
Please join us on Saturday, September 12 for a program and opening reception for The Cold Stitch. An introduction by Emily Stoddart, Co-Organizer of The Cold Stitch and Manager of Exhibitions and Community Programs at Scandinavia House, will be followed by artist talks by Nora Martine Hjelle Strand, Thorunn Elisabet Sveinsdottir, and Ingunn Fjóla IngÞórsdóttir, all of whom are presenting work in this year’s exhibition. Following the talks, Ragna Froda, Curator of The Cold Stitch and Founder of New York Textile Month, will lead a Curatorial Walkthrough of the galleries. An opening reception beginning at 4pm will round out the afternoon.
This program will take place in this September’s NORDIC TEXTILE TAKEOVER, resented in partnership with New York Textile Month.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Ingunn Fjóla Ingþórsdóttir (b. 1976) is an Icelandic artist based in Denmark. Working across textiles, painting, drawing, and installation, she explores the structures and systems that shape human life, and the ways individuals negotiate, adapt, and transform them.
Ingunn Fjóla’s work has been exhibited widely in Iceland, Denmark, Germany, and the United States, and is represented in numerous public and private collections in Iceland. Recent solo exhibitions include The Only Constant Is Change at the National Gallery of Iceland and You Are the Input at LÁ Art Museum in Hveragerði. In 2022, she received the Guðmunda S. Kristinsdóttir Art Award for Outstanding Female Artists in Iceland.
Ingunn Fjóla holds an MA in Fine Art (2017) and a BA in Fine Art (2007) from the Iceland University of the Arts, as well as a BA in Art History (2002) from Aarhus University, Denmark.
Nora Martine Hjelle Strand is a Norwegian artist based in Bergen, Norway. Her practice centers on processing memories and emotions through physical action. This is the starting point for her autobiographical textile works, which are built through repetitive, time-consuming techniques such as weaving and hand-quilting. Strand is interested in how we are connected as human beings, and how experience shapes the way we live – a theme she explores both directly, through text, and indirectly, through color and imagery. Every work begins with the personal. The finished piece becomes a physical trace of the internal process behind it: every thread holds a thought, every stitch a memory.
