Art Can Heal US Book launch
Art
From Hauser & Wirth Event’s Invite
EVENT DETAILS
ART CAN HEAL: BOOK LAUNCH & TALK
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH
6-8PM
URSULA BOOKSHOP
443 W 18TH ST
NEW YORK, NY 10011
DESCRIPTION
Celebrating the US release of ART CAN HEAL: THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIGRÍÐUR BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, please join us for a conversation about the making of the book and the pioneering and exploration of art therapy outside of the scope of the commercial art world.
There will be a special display of ephemera from Sigríđur’s practice and work by author Ágústa she had made when a ‘patient’ of Sigríđur.
There will be copies of the book for sale at the event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Art Can Heal tells the remarkable story of the pioneering Icelandic artist and art therapist, Sigríður Björnsdóttir. From 1952 she developed methods to help children in hospitals experience, explore, and express their thoughts and emotions through art. Sigríđur’s vision was that children should be given opportunities to experience unrestricted visual creativity, free play, and spontaneous expression to encourage the natural evolution of their character. Art Can Heal is an attempt by visual artist Ágústa Oddsdóttir to describe and share with the world the impact and magic that art therapy with Sigríđur had on her life. Art Can Heal also includes interviews with Sigríður by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and visual artist Egill Sæbjörnsson. Published by Koenig Books.
PARTICIPANT BIOS
Sigríður Björnsdóttir (b. 1929, Flaga, Skaftártunga; lives and works in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic artist and a pioneer in the field of art therapy. Trained as an artist and art teacher at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts (graduating in 1952), she forged an independent and interdisciplinary path that bridged the realms of art and healing. Early formative experiences working with children’s hospitals in London and Copenhagen (1952–57) led her to develop a groundbreaking methodology that enabled sick children to explore and express themselves through art. In 1957, Björnsdóttir was appointed founding Head of Creative Therapy at the Paediatric Department of the National University Hospital in Reykjavík, later the Icelandic Children’s Hospital, where she worked until 1973. She subsequently continued her practice at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Reykjavík until 1996. Over the course of her career, she became internationally recognized, lecturing and exhibiting at leading art therapy and medical congresses across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.
Dr. Abigail Ley is a pediatric neurologist and serves as medical director of the Neurodevelopmental Conditions and Autism Program within the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Neuroscience Institute. She earned her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. Dr. Ley completed a residency in pediatrics and fellowship in child neurology and neurodevelopmental disabilities at George Washington University/Children's National Health System in Washington, DC. Her clinical area of expertise includes autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
Ash Frenkel is an educator and teaching artist who has worked across and in-between disciplines for the last 12 years at places like the Rubin Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Freshkills Park, and public schools across the five boroughs to create collectively driven learning experiences. In 2021, they received their M.S.Ed in Leadership in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education. They are currently the Education and Community Engagement Manager at Swiss Institute where they support families, seniors, young adults and teens in accessing playful, inquiry-driven creativities
Ágústa Oddsdóttir (b. 1947, Reykjavík; lives and works between Reykjavík, Kjós, and Berlin) came to art through an unconventional path. After a fifteen–year career as a sociology teacher and translator, she turned to art therapy workshops with Sigríður Björnsdóttir in 1988 as a means of working through creative and emotional exhaustion. This transformative experience led her to study art education at the Iceland College of Education, and later to graduate from The Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts (now Iceland University of the Arts) in 1997 at the age of fifty. Her practice remains deeply informed by this formative encounter with Sigríður Björnsdóttir, weaving together personal memory, trauma and intergenerational perspectives. Working with themes from her own life of emotional resonance, recycling ethics and the shifting outlooks of the 20th and 21st centuries, Oddsdóttir develops a body of work that foregrounds art as a healing and connective force. Recent presentations include The National Gallery of Iceland and AWARE, Paris, in collaboration with the Initiative for Practices and Visions of Radical Care. Her book Art Can Heal, dedicated to the life and work of Sigríður Björnsdóttir, received three awards from The Icelandic Centre for the Arts in 2024. In 2026, she will participate in the Contemporary Art Festival Survival Kit in Riga, Latvia.
Egill Sæbjörnsson is a visual artist, musician, and architecture interventionist born in 1973 in Iceland and currently based in Berlin. He has been making artworks that bring together 3D environments, digital projections, technology, and sound since the 1990s. These range from small intimate installations in museum and gallery settings to larger-scale permanent architectural installations. Sæbjörnsson conceives his work as a technological continuation of painting and sculpture, exploring the space between the virtual and physical. His work is playful and humorous but always probes deeper ontological and philosophical questions. Sæbjörnsson gives regular performance lectures in which he explores the theoretical underpinnings of his practice. Sæbjörnsson’s works have been exhibited in The Martin Gropius Bau, Royal College of Art London, PS1 MoMA New York, The Watermill Center, Museum of Modern Art Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Seoul, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Roma, The Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Amos Rex Museum, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Oi Futuro Rio de Janeiro, Biennale Dakar, and The National Gallery of Prague. He represented Iceland at The 57th Biennale Arte in Venice, and in 2019 he was nominated for the Ars Fennica Art Prize in Finland.