Join us for an afternoon of hand-stitching workshops led by three celebrated Nordic artists: Nora Martine Hjelle Strand, Andrea Magdalena Jónsdóttir, and Thorunn Elisabet Sveinsdóttir. Each artist comes from a textile background, with specialization in embroidery, and all will be participating in The Cold Stitch as part of this year’s NORDIC TEXTILE TAKEOVER.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

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.

Andrea Magdalena Jónsdóttir is a visual artist based in Reykjavík, Iceland, who works with textiles, specifically intricate hand embroidery. Her work explores situations in which things seem both to not be in the right place, and yet simultaneously appear familiar in their contexts and settings. Jónsdóttir magnifies and embroiders her shopping lists, messages and memory notes onto fabric. Her artwork portrays ordinary, everyday stories within which rhythm is developed. Previously insignificant paper scraps are given meaning.

Thorunn Elisabet Sveinsdottir is an artist and costume set designer from Reykjavik, Iceland. Her artwork has been included in several solo and group exhibitions, and she is a member of The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists, as well as The Icelandic Actors and Drama Guild. Sveinsdottir has been an active set and costume designer in the world of Icelandic theatre and film for more than four decades and has won prestigious awards of excellence for her work. Additionally, she is the subject of two books: I Love Being Alive – A testimony of a unique Icelandic artist, and She Is My Sweetheart For 50 Years.