Margrét H. Blöndal (b. 1970) is nominated for the Icelandic Visual Arts Awards 2008 for her exhibition Touching the Membrane at The Reykjavík Art Museum ­ Hafnarhús._The exhibition clearly showed Margrét’s mastery of her technique of transforming materials and arranging them together within a space. She utilizes her remarkably strong sense of space and her acute sensitivity to delicate forms and textures with modesty and simplicity. In this exhibition, she went even farther than before, showing courage by allowing the exhibition hall in Hafnarhús to give the initial impression of being vacant. Then she skillfully led the viewer through the hall, to discover one by one each component of the installation, until these individual elements had filled up the hall that had previously seemed empty. In this manner, she engaged the viewer in seeking out her humble yet complex works._Margrét also revealed new facets of herself in the exhibition through her delicate, almost ethereal oil-based drawings, in which each line seems drawn as if by chance. But neither chance nor coincidence applies to these works, or to her installations. Margrét’s strength lies also in her ability to transform the composition of her installations—with the appearance of effortlessness—into another medium.

Panel of Adjudicators for The Icelandic Visual Arts Awards 2008.