1957-2057
30.05.2026 – 20.09.2026
Solo Exhibition
Reykjavík
The show brings together works from across Sander’s career alongside new pieces made in Iceland, offering a broad and engaging look at one of Germany’s leading conceptual artists. Sander’s work often shifts how we see everyday things, making familiar spaces and situations feel newly charged. Rather than presenting something fixed, her artworks frequently invite visitors to become part of them. Through subtle and precise interventions, she draws attention to details we might normally overlook, encouraging us to think differently about how we experience the world.
Many of her pieces depend on audience participation or are shaped by their surroundings, so the exhibition keeps evolving as people move through it. Karin Sander has had a strong connection to Iceland for more than 30 years. The country has been both a place where she produces work and an ongoing reference in her practice. The exhibition reflects that long relationship, including works created in different locations around Iceland that respond directly to its landscapes, environments, and cultural context.
A key aspect of the exhibition 1957–2057 is site-specificity—how artworks connect to the space they inhabit, physically and conceptually. At Reykjavík Art Museum, the exhibition activates the building itself, with works that respond to its architecture and its place within the city. A neon piece uses Google Earth coordinates to locate visitors within the museum, while others highlight surfaces, structures, and even the passage of time within the space. The exhibition also introduces new works from Sander’s “Patina Paintings” series. For this show, white primed canvases were installed across Iceland, resulting in works that reflect the country’s varied landscapes and changing conditions.
Participation plays an important role throughout the exhibition. In Museum Visitors 1:7, one of Sander’s most ambitious ongoing projects, guests are invited to be scanned and turned into smallscale
3D sculptures. As the exhibition progresses, these sculptures gather into a growing installation, making the audience visible in the space and turning their presence into part of the artwork.
Across her career, Sander has explored how time, environment, and context shape both objects and people. Her work challenges traditional ideas about authorship and permanence, focusing on
process, change, and interaction. By using everyday materials, architectural features, and digital tools, she creates situations where art emerges through experience rather than being imposed.
1957–2057 highlights the artist’s distinctive approach to material, space, time, and lived experience, encouraging visitors to reflect upon their role within the exhibition—and the wider environment.
Curated by Ólöf Kristín Sigurðardóttir and Markús Þór Andrésson
Represented works
Wall PiecesPeople on Stone Plinths
Chicken Egg, Polished, Raw, Size 0
3D Body Scans
Hair Drawings
Pinselstrich, rot
Patina Paintings
Window A4 < A3
Kitchen Pieces
Glass Pieces
Identities on Display
Call Shots
Ideoscapes / Google Earth Scans
Koordinaten (Coordinates)
Map Icon