Closed Enough is an exhibition of nine artists based in or associated with Iceland. The exhibition was conceived by Icelandic artist Una Björg Magnúsdóttir and Newcastle-born Joe Keys, who emigrated to Iceland in 2018. It features work by artists at different stages of their careers, but who have all exhibited frequently in Iceland.

The exhibition has been evolving between all those participating, through meetings both online and in person, and the title, Closed Enough, is a play on the feeling of distance and closeness. It speaks of a sensitivity towards the comforts and shelters that arise through the imposing influence of Iceland’s weather conditions, but also to a poetics of things within and out of reach, and the reorienting of things near at hand, a process similar to that described by Sarah Ahmed in her book, Queer Phenomenology. It also evokes how galleries and museums appear to place things out of reach, but how these things, through the sensibilities of their making, may still reach back to lives lived.

Alongside the exhibition the artists will make a series of lithograph prints produced by Hole Editions, Newcastle, a fine art collaborative printmaking workshop, specialising in stone lithography. A catalogue designed by Chris Petter Spilde will also be presented.

The town of Gateshead sits across the River Tyne from the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, and both have great cultural institutions and interesting creative scenes. The connections between the unique Icelandic art scene with the North East of England resulting from this exhibition will create a rich cultural exchange.

The exhibition is part of ‘Assemblage II: Time and Space’ hosted by the Department of Art at Northumbria University and organised with The Cultural Negotiation of Science Research Group (CNoS), The BxNU Institute (BxNU), and Vane.