A Studio “As Diverse as Its Members:” How Listvinnzlan Empowers Disabled Icelandic Artists

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Creativity fills the art studio with a powerful aura. The disabled artists have laser focus on their work. This is not a place of paternalism; this is a place of inclusion and empowerment.

The artists of Listvinnzlan are working on sculptures for their art show in May 2026. Listvinnzlan is only a few years old, but its artists have already had much success. Its creation, according to the Icelandic Arts Center, is a reaction to the fact that “Western exhibition spaces have traditionally been dominated by works from cisgender, heterosexual, non-disabled white men.”

Artist Margrét M. Norðdahl founded Listvinnzlan in 2022 to build equity and diversity into Icelandic art spaces. Interestingly, the Icelandic language did not have a specific word for “inclusion” until 2021, and disabled Icelanders did not have a legal right to attend upper secondary education until 2008. 

Margrét, Listvinnzlan’s director, together with key contributors, filmmaker Lee Lorenzo Lynch, graphic media worker Hjördís Árnadóttir and artists Elín S. M. Ólafsdóttir (Ella), Kolbeinn Jón Magnússon, Atli Már Indriðason, Helga Matthildur Viðarsdóttir, Gígja Garðarsdóttir, and Þórir Gunnarsson (also known as Listapúkinn) are the Listvinnzlan core team and have been working together since its early days. Their work as artists is helping define what inclusion means in Icelandic society. 

They say, “Inclusion means diversity, equality, and fairness. It means accepting people as they are—regardless of nationality, skin color, disability or ability, gender, sexual orientation, age, social class, and so on. Inclusion ensures that we all have equal opportunities, empowerment, and the individualized support we need to make the most of those opportunities. Inclusion is when we belong,” according to Margrét’s interview with the Icelandic Arts Center.

Margrét compared her journey as an artist to her coworker disabled artist Þórir Gunnarsson, by explaining to the Icelandic Arts Center that she had many opportunities for higher education arts programs, exchange programs, and arts employment that he did not have. Þórir applied for many of these programs and was rejected multiple times. “Higher education and access to professional work in the arts are not accessible to disabled people in Iceland. Listvinnzlan is working towards inclusion in the art world and provides a platform for disabled artists to pursue their creative careers,” she said. 

As the featured artist of Iceland’s Art Without Borders 2025, Þórir had a solo exhibition called Lightning in October of last year.  The description of Þórir’s artwork from his exhibition in
Hafnarborg says his work “is full of vitality and spark, shaped by commitment, effort, and curiosity. He works extensively with drawing and watercolour, approaching his mediums intuitively. Many works begin as sketches made during bus rides, where his attentive eye captures everyday life and fleeting moments, layering material and ideas into new realities.”

When I visited Listvinnzlan’s studio space in February 2026, Margrét helped me to interview several artists because I do not speak Icelandic. Helga Matthildur is a talented artist who had her first solo exhibition at the Mosfellsbær Art Hall in 2020, organized by Art Without Borders. There, she showed a total of 77 drawings and paintings, made in 2019 and 2020. Helga said her work looks abstract but when you get closer to the piece, you can see small stories within it. Many times, she layers shapes and form over a photo, primarily portraits of herself taken by Margrét. There is a story in every layer, Helga says.

Ella large sculptural piece draws my attention when I enter the studio. It has mannequin legs sticking out of a large, round big vase painted red and purple with large yellow face emojis with different expressions in two rows around the bottom of the bin. Ella says that the piece is called Emotional Vase, and the feet sticking out of it originally had colorful socks on. The emojis represent all kinds of emotions and “sometimes you just want to disappear and jump” into them, she says.   

I developed an affinity for Frida Adriana Martins’ work right away because she was creating a sea turtle (my favorite animal). I showed her a picture of Cowgirl, a sea turtle I and others sponsored at Sea Turtle Inc. in South Padre Island, Texas. We chatted about our love of turtles, manatees, and the other animals she draws and sculps. 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes the importance of empowering the creativity of disabled citizens, saying in Article 30 that countries “shall take appropriate measures to enable persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, not only for their own benefit, but also for the enrichment of society.”

Disabled artists who work in video and photography have an excellent media studio for their filmmaking and editing. I watched a humorous video meme created by Birkir Sigurðsson, which is multiple clips of him sitting on a bench with the film character Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks in 1994) in which he rolls his eyes every time Forrest says, “You never know what you’re gonna get.'” Filmmaker Lee Lorenzo Lynch told me that the video work created at Listvinnzlan “is as diverse as its members; some artists create surreal, humoristic films (such as Birkir), and others have directed documentaries that seek to reconcile their own empowerment within Icelandic society.” 

I also met the artists’ “honorary grandmother,” Veronica Jarosz, who stops by the artist’s studio once a week to literally lend a hand, because in creating their sculptures sometimes the artists need an extra set or sets of hands to hold things. Veronica, who grew up in Wales, UK, immigrated to Iceland long ago because she wanted to raise children in a country with no military, which is Iceland. (Iceland only has a Coast Guard.)

Margrét had the idea for Listvinnzlan when she was overseeing the List án Landamæra (Art Without Borders) festival, and she “noticed the lack of support for disabled artists and the limited accessibility of the Icelandic art world, both in general and in various specific spaces,” the Icelandic Arts Center reported.

Listvinnzlan “is paving the way for other disabled and marginalized artists from future generations. They aim to clear a path so that the future will be more inclusive, and the art world will become a more open space for all. Their policy is to exclude no one and welcome everyone,” according to the Icelandic Arts Center.

“A positive development for the future of all platforms within the art world is for them to look inward and reflect on how they will work towards being more inclusive,” Margrét told the Icelandic Arts Center. “Let’s imagine we are redesigning our systems today—our art world, education system, and professional fields. Would we design them in a way that marginalizes or excludes certain groups? It’s crucial that other platforms within the art world look inward and see how they can contribute to inclusion. Are exhibition spaces and museums working towards inclusion? How are the entry requirements for organizations like SÍM (Icelandic Artists’ Union) and other professional associations? And what about the funding environment? Is it accessible? We encourage the entire art world to take steps towards inclusion.”

The artists in Iceland are modeling what true inclusion in the arts means. As Þórir and Ella told the Icelandic Arts Center, disabled artists should be uplifted and supported and be allowed to evolve as creators.

You can see more of their work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DS7zyvaCFqE/ and on their webpage www.listvinnslan.is