Kathryn Naylor, a painter from Canada, often seeks to express the changes of season and weather in her work.  Previous visits to Iceland have influenced her painting, and this residency draws her imagination to the colours of winter and the interdependence of darkness and light.

‘There are always lessons, and turning points: the surprise of recognizing everything you wanted to express in just a few strokes of colour.  Following that path, and finding that “simplicity” is not so.
Learning what not to do.’   www.kathrynnaylor.com

Sarah Puleo is an artist from Philadelphia, USA who documents emotional landscapes with her camera.
https://www.sarahpuleo.com/

Ann-Ci Lifmark, visual artist from Sweden, is for the third time in Iceland to paint the landscape, the light and the dark.

Suski Evans work is based on a combination of multiple concepts: ephemeral existence; destabilization of the arctic ecosystem; scientific principles of lens design; psychology of grief and mourning; silence and solitude; metaphysical paintings by Frederic Edwin Church and Casper David Freidrich; concepts of beauty from Immanual Kant and William Burke; Pictorialist application of light and formless objects of temporary duration.

Ice was pulled from the landscape as well as natural water formed into optical elements used both as a photographic filter and a photographic lens. https://susaneevans.wixsite.com/susaneevans

Heinz Kasper is a light painter, a light draughtsman, and a light
designer. For him, colour is light and light is form. Forms evolve from
shadows, and gain their contour from light; light delineates the shapes,
which transform like light itself as the day moves into night. On
travels from Europe to Africa, from India to Japan, he has explored the
most varied manifestations of light, and experimented with light
environments and designs.

With this in mind, it is only logical that Heinz Kasper does not limit
himself only to the institution of art during his research trips.
Alongside his light designs for museums, and his participation in
international light festivals, he also mounts interior and exterior
architectural projects as well as temporary exhibitions and other
projects related to all genres of the pictorial arts. Moreover, time and
again he creates and stages illuminated “moving pictures” in which
nature itself is brought to speak. In the end, everything is light.

During the residency in NES Heinz Kasper will document and observe the
„Blue Hour” and work on the series of Silhouettes “Praise of the
Shadow”. Other topics: elaboration of the concept „Aeon Oz” a film,
a performance a transformation an experience about movement, light and
sound through a spiritual and cultural India.
Aeon Oz film sketch https://vimeo.com/267758553
Aeon Oz performance trailer https://vimeo.com/289833032
Website: www.heinzkasper.com

Ingeborg Knøsen is a singer/songwriter and actress from Braskereidfoss, Norway.  She has since a young age written songs and shares this passion with writing manuscripts and short stories as well.

At the Nes Artist Residency she has two agendas: developing her music style, and writing new material as well as polishing her already made songs, and to do research for her manuscript project involving norse mythology as a main focus.

Her songs are written while playing piano or keyboard, ukulele, acoustic and/or electric guitar. The genre varies but for now it’s folk/rock that gets the most attention for her English or Norwegian lyrics. She likes to bring genuine reflections into a poetic landscape, combined with metaphors attached to the surroundings to her texts, and let the melody set the mood. The honesty might come across as naive, or wise, depending on who’s listening.

The time and space at the residency allows her to stretch out, letting the creativity flow. (Ingeborg, who’s writing this presentation, says she’s forever grateful.)

Song-links:
https://soundcloud.com/ingeborg-kn-sen/tony
https://soundcloud.com/ingeborg-kn-sen/livsnyter

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ingeborgknosen/
https://www.instagram.com/ingebokka/

Sabrina Casadei from Italy, shares her thoughts on her work and process:

´In my work I am really inspired by remote and isolated places. I did not used to close my thought for a project in advance, since I prefer to let myself be inspired from the place I am in contact with.

My painting research is based on an endless dialogue with the outside world. This dialogue is a silenced one, made of listening and penetrating gaze, in a less superficial and aesthetic way.

It is a matter to me to establish a relationship of empathy with the outside, when the sight makes way for a form of reflection, when the eye does not focus on anything and sets the vision free´.
www.sabrinacasadei.com

Valentina and Pascal have worked together before coming to Iceland.

Their last common project is a photobook, which shows compositions about
leaving forward.

At Nes they ask themselves the question, what people drag into foreign
places.

For this project called “listen to the ground”, both of them will/may
leave their common working field (photography & painting) and experiment
in other disciplines, such as text, video and sound.

Webpage Pascal: www.pascalschneiter.ch 
Instagram Valentina: https://www.instagram.com/enjoytheboatride/

Ýr Jóhannsdóttir is an Icelandic based textile designer and artist. Since 2012 Ýr has been creating knitted textiles under the name Ýrúrarí.

Her work explores the possibilities of new visual elements knit can create in spaces and on the human body in a way of illustrating the everyday three dimensional space.

Ýr knit works are on the wide spectrum from hand knitting figurative fun pieces on old jumpers to machine knitting abstract and complex mathematical textiles, working with the technique of weaving, OP art and making dimensions meet on the surface of knitted fabric.

Follow up on Ýr’s work and get a peek into her process at http://www.yrurari.com/ or www.instagram.com/yrurari
Ýr is the 2018 Nes recipient of the Künstlerhaus Lukas residency scholarship and exchange.

Deanna (Dee) Bailey completed fine art and biology degrees in Alberta, Canada. She moved to the Yukon Territory in 2010 and fell for the vast wilderness there. Dee’s strong love of nature, wildlife and the outdoors is the subject matter of her art. Dee’s main objective is to encourage people to reconnect with nature through art.

Interested in pushing the boundaries of two dimensional art and attempting to make paintings more sculptural, she has been painting with oil-based clay.

While at NES in Iceland, Dee is completing research on connections to nature and landscape. She will create sculptural landscape paintings and illustrations while taking in the beauty of Northern Iceland.

Dee is a member of the Yukon Artists at Work Co-operative (YA@W). Her art can be found at the YA@W Gallery, at Arts Underground Gallery and online.
www.dbaileyart.com
Instagram: dbailey.art
Facebook: D Bailey Art page
info@dbaileyart.com