Aspects by Valgerður Sigurðardóttir

In her first solo exhibition in Iceland since relocating to Belgium, Valgerður Sigurðardóttir (b. 1992, Reykjavik — lives and works in Antwerp) returns with a completely new series of ceramic sculptures. It is a homecoming in more ways than one. Not only geographically, but thematically and intuitively as well, her work traces a path toward a deeply personal perspective — one that is at once feminine, mystical, powerful, and tender.

Beneath the apparent simplicity of her drawings and sculptures lies a quiet complexity. Beginning with familiar, domestic scenes — the small, the everyday, the intimate — and drawing on dreams and emotions, Sigurðardóttir explores the fine line between comfort and recognition on one hand, and strangeness and delirium on the other. As in her 2024 exhibition Talking to an Angel at KETELEER GALLERY, she draws from personal experiences such as birth, motherhood, loss, and longing. Yet her work moves beyond the personal, tapping into a collective memory — a shared emotional landscape where archetypes, stories, and dreams quietly echo.

VALGERÐUR SIGURÐARDÓTTIR (b. 1992. Reykjavik, Iceland. Lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.), ‘Vala’ in short, received her master’s degree in Sculpture at KASK, Ghent, Belgium and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp, Belgium prior to that as an Erasmus exchange student from the Icelandic Academy of Arts where she finished her bachelor’s degree. In 2017 she co-founded ABC Klubhuis. Since 2013 she took part in numerous group exhibitions in Reykjavik, Oslo, Ghent, Antwerp, Romania.