*Please note: this workshop is now sold out.*

In this workshop you will join four celebrated Nordic textile artists, Thórunn Elísabet Sveinsdóttir (Tótalisa), Nora Martine Hjelle Strand, Andrea Magdalena Jónsdottir, and Miron Kiselev, all of whom work with embroidery and stitching in a range of ways, and are included in NORDIC TEXTILE TAKEOVER: The Cold Stitch. Meet them, spend time with them, and learn with them, needle in hand.

At the heart of this year’s Nordic Textile Takeover is the tradition of gathering, and learning alongside one another. Bringing embroidery back to its social roots, this workshop will create a meeting point, wherein stories and skills are shared through the act of creation.

Throughout this workshop and gathering, you will have the opportunity to engage with all four artists, learning about their respective practices, as well as different stitches and stitching techniques, experiencing the way in which the act of stitching in community can become a platform for the exchange of knowledge.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Thórunn Elísabet Sveinsdóttir (Tótalisa) is an artist and costume/set designer based in Reykjavik, Iceland, whose career spans more than four decades across theatre, film, and fine art. As a visual artist, Thorunn Elisabet is known for her storytelling through textiles, transforming repurposed fabrics, garments, and old cloth into large-scale quilts and sculptural works that give discarded materials new meaning and value. Her practice reflects a lifelong instinct for giving material history a second life. She has presented numerous solo and group exhibitions and is a member of both The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists and The Icelandic Actors and Drama Guild. She recently received the distinguished GRIMAN Honorary Award for both costume/set design and her curatorial work through her successful career. Her life and work have also been the subject of two published books: I Love Being Alive – A Testimony of a Unique Icelandic Artist and She Is My Sweetheart For 50 Years.

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. Her medium is textile and in particular hand embroidery. Her work explores situations where something is not at its right place, or something is missing but at the same time it appears familiar in the context of the setting. In recent work, Andrea works with her own memory notes, found text and mending. For her, working with thread offers tactile connection with the subject, in a slow but mindful process. Andrea has a BA degree in Anthropology, she studied visual art and design at the Iceland University of the Arts and holds an MA degree in Art Education from the same university. She has worked as an education and mediation specialist at the Reykjavík Art Museum and currently she teaches visual art at Fjölbrautaskólinn in Breiðholt, collage in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Miron Kiselev is a New York City-Based artist. He received BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2019, and has exhibited his work in Art Shows in Moscow, Providence and New York. The majority of materials used in his work are repurposed and upcycled fabrics. Through embroidery and embellishments in his apparel design work he urged the viewer to consider the opportunity of prolonging the life of the garment through repair.