Visual Artist
Artist Statement – Elísabet Olka
I am an Icelandic artist based in Copenhagen, working across painting, drawing, sculpture, plaster, and clay. My practice is rooted in material exploration—blending diverse techniques to create works that are both poetic and tactile. I move fluidly between abstraction and figuration, allowing form, texture, and emotion to guide the process.
In recent projects, I have focused on creating small, hand-painted ceramic tiles, assembling them into cohesive visual montages. These fragmented surfaces come together to form new, layered narratives—each piece a meditation on memory, transformation, and continuity.
Much of my work draws on the human figure and psychological states, tracing inner journeys, inherited stories, and intergenerational experience. Through drawing and painting, I attempt to give form to emotions that are often felt but not easily named.
In parallel, I create dreamlike, abstract drawings that aim to capture fleeting sensory impressions—moments suspended between memory and emotion. These works exist in the space between the personal and the collective, the physical and the imagined.
CV
Elísabet Olka
Lives and works in Gentofte, Denmark
Education
BFA in Fine Arts
Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavík, Iceland
Recent exhibitions
2025
Wild Horses Gallery Denmark
Islands Ambassade, Copenhagen, Denmark
2024
Floral Afferis DesignMarch, Stefánsbúð, Reykjavík, Iceland
phenomenon – DesignMarch
2023
Poetic Rum. Culture Night, Stefánsbúð, Reykjavík, Iceland
2022
My Eye is Like a Leaf ( Auga mitt er lauf) Listval Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland
Christmas Show. Listval , Reykjavík, Iceland
