The Blob

Jón B. K. Ransu is a visual artist, academic, author and curator living in Reykjavík, Iceland. He studied visual arts at the Painting department at AKI - Akademie Voor Beeldende Kunst in Enschede, Netherlands, in the years 1990 - 1995 (BA) and Pedagogy of art at the Iceland Academy of the Arts 2010 - 2012 (MA). He also took part in ISCP (International Studio and Curatorial Program) in New York in 2006 where he received a subsidy from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

In his art Ransu revisits the history of painting. From there he appropriates images or methods, which usually refer to optics or how we process the information of colours and forms. In the fifth volume of Icelandic Art History, published in 2011, art historian Gunnar B. Kvaran writes: “Ransu has done a variety of experiments that relate to, among other things, the appropriation of painting and the perception of the viewer. […] Even though he deals with appropriations, the artist is never afraid to use references in his artistic creations by changing the use of material, forms and context. (Gunnar B. Kvaran, “New Paintings, Performances and installations”, Icelandic Art History: From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century, The National Gallery of Iceland, 2011, p. 85).

Ransu has exhibited his work around Europe, United States and Iceland. He has also taken on several projects as a curator and has, among other things, organized exhibitions for the National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík Art Museum, Kópavogur Art Museum, Akureyri Art Museum, The Nordic House in Reykjavik and The Living Art Museum. He was one of the curators of Nordic biennial Momentum 9: Alienation, in Moss, Norway in June 2017.

Ransu worked as a critic and columnist at the national daily Morgunbladid from 2002 - 2010. He is the author and co-author of five books about art and artists in Iceland and has written about art in numerous exhibition catalogues, journals and magazines.

Ransu was a part-time lecturer at the Iceland Academy of the Arts from 2002 - 2016, where he taught both practical and theoretical courses at BA and MA level. Since 2016 he has overseen the painting department at The Reykjavik School of Visual Arts as its course leader