Íslenska Teiknisetrið

This year we debuted the A3 Project, our first publication series!

The A3 Project is an ongoing publication series with the goal of creating a platform for Icelandic-based artists to explore drawing’s potential – to reflect on what it means to them, how it might align to their practice or be an antenna for what isn’t there yet. The project warmly welcomes works that might fit outside of the artists’ normal oeuvre, or what might be expected of them in a commercial setting and we hope it encourages an ambitious and experimental approach.

For the initial period, artists will be chosen on an invitation basis and put together into a publication group on a curatorial basis. We look forward to expanding our horizons of the different artists working in Iceland as the project continues. For the work, each participating artist is invited to create a drawing-related work within the confines of a single, double sided page. The only limitations of the project are the page size of A3 and that the work can be printed in monochrome. Otherwise the artists are free to explore what drawing and paper means to them – as the pages can also be designed for manipulation. The ambition for a simple framework is in part to promote a creative response – as we look forward to seeing how much can be found within a single page and simple print; and also to celebrate the ethos that fuels this project: to do as much as possible with as little as possible. Just like drawing, art should be for anybody that wants it, with high distribution despite low costs, and the ability to discover magic with simple tools like a pencil or stroke. The works will be digitally printed in batches and sold at a low price, with the majority of the proceedings always going to the artist.

This project was directly inspired by our 2023 Ranís project researching Rauðsokkahreyfing’s (the Red Stockings Movement) use of drawing for political activism in the 70s and 80s. We found archived handouts which addressed issues of gender equality, (i.e. abuse, the third shift, the pay gap) and each topic fit in a single double-sided A4 page, which were sometimes folded into A5 booklets. They could be hung as posters, distributed as flyers, or read like books. They were energetic, scathing, humorous and cheap and we felt inspired by how much could be conveyed with a humble photocopy. We hope to share with you the energy that brought us here, and continue it forward. 

We are happy to present in the first publication individual works by Brák Jónsdóttir, Jasa Baka, Sölvi Haldorssón, Agnes Ársælsdóttir and a group drawing by The Icelandic Drawing Center. We were lucky to have a table at The Reykjavík Art Book Fair in May, where we could present it and introduce ourselves to the Reykajvík art community. 

We look forward to sharing season two of this project with you in December!

Boaz and Odda at the Reykjavík Art Book Fair in Hafnarhús ✨