Applications are now open for two residency programmes in 2027: the Regular Residency for artists and creative practitioners, and the Music Residency, developed in partnership with Studio Silo, for musicians and sound-based practitioners.
We welcome artists, musicians, writers, and other creative practitioners for month-long stays, with the possibility of longer consecutive residencies for those developing bigger projects.
Priority goes to returning alumni and people applying for longer stays - we love seeing familiar faces back, and we especially value residents who want time to properly settle in, make work, and become part of the rhythm of the place.
Returning residents get 10% off.
Partners or collaborators staying together in the same room get 30% off each (limited).
What you get:
• 24/7 access to the facilities + shared studio spaces
• Wood, print, photo lab + ceramics workshops
• Concert hall access
• Private room in an artists’ houses
• Pick up and drop off from Egilsstaðir and weekly shopping trips.
Check residency periods and apply via the link in bio.
Also: a few spots are still available for November + December 2026 if you’re looking for something sooner. 🎏🎏🎏
#artistresidency #musicresidency #opencall #residency2027 #easticeland #fishfactory #studiosilo #artistsinresidence #creativecommunity #icelandartistsresidency
Baz Laarakkers is a sound artist and composer from Arnhem, The Netherlands. His practice blends field recording, sonic transformation and generative composition, letting sound unfold through both compositional intent and procedural processes. During his stay at the residency Baz joined Laura Nygren mid-month as collaborator in the development of her new work “Glisten”.
Glisten is an artistic research into the materiality of snow and ice. Using field recordings, vocal techniques, and electronics, Laura is developing a body of work around the molecular language of melting. Her research revolves around two questions: How can ephemeral materials express collective resilience? How can we, as artists, resist ecological destruction and fight political apathy? While a single snowflake might vanish instantly, a drift takes days.
Throughout their time together, they adventured up the mountains of Stöðvarfjörður and took an unforgettable trip to the Hoffellsjökull glacier for field recording. Back at the factory, they spent time re-amping samples of snow and ice using Atomic Analog gear and composing from recordings made on the mountain, at the glacier, and around the factory. The results will eventually materialise into a vocal work, to be completed later this year.
While staying at the Fish Factory, Baz breathed in the feeling of space, silence and a sense of deep time. He got a bit of faith back in the potential of kindness through his fellow residents, the Fish Factory team, and all the animals of Stöðvarfjörður. His time spent at the residency felt simultaneously stretched and far too short.
Glisten and this residency are made possible by the Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts.
https://fishfactory.is/2026/05/baz-laarakkers/
Laura Nygren is a classical double bassist in recovery, now focused on experimental music practices, voice, and creating through acts of care. A returning resident to Fish Factory, her first visit in 2019 inspired her to create her avant-pop act Show Pony, she returned this past April to develop her new work, Glisten, together with collaborator Baz Laarakkers.
Glisten is an artistic research into the materiality of snow and ice. Using field recordings, vocal techniques, and electronics, Laura is developing a body of work around the molecular language of melting. Her research revolves around two questions: How can ephemeral materials express collective resilience? How can we, as artists, resist ecological destruction and fight political apathy? While a single snowflake might vanish instantly, a drift takes days.
Baz joined her mid-month, and together they adventured up the mountain of Stöðvarfjörður and took an unforgettable trip to the Hoffellsjökull glacier for field recording. Back at the factory, they spent time re-amping samples of snow and ice using Atomic Analog gear and composing from recordings made on the mountain, at the glacier, and around the factory. The results will eventually materialise into a vocal work, to be completed later this year.
While in Iceland, Laura recorded, wrote, absorbed, and enjoyed watching the country transition from winter to summer, dabbling along the way in her favourite hobbies: fiber arts and making bad ceramics.
Her time at Fish Factory was filled with laughter and inspiration from the other residents and factory regulars. She connected with local musician Sarah Steiner and recorded some bass for Sarah's music — a highlight among many. It was a time of feeling close to people who started out as strangers and left as incredible friends, a reminder of how small, wonderful, and weird the world can be.
Glisten and this residency are made possible by the Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts.
@fondspodiumkunsten
Pigeon love
Meanwhile when I was listening to an @nts_radio show, the host of the program said she was being watched by two pigeons with a flying plastic bag in front of them. I felt immediately that I had to capture this scene. Also because pigeons are fascinating to me. There is so much symbolism hidden in them. The way they stroll around in cities, crossing bike paths just when you almost hit them, sitting on rocks or flying just above your head. In the Netherlands we call them “flying rats”, sadly because a lot of people see them as an unhygienic virus. This also has to say something about rats.
Because if we are truely honest and we look into the mirror, we as humans are not less then a “virus” then them. These animals perfectly adapt to nature, civilization and trying to survive. We as humans also trying to survive not by adaptation but by destroying land, being filthy with our environment, leaving trash behind with the endless need for consuming and having the “will” to always want something better in life.
This drawing of this beautiful scene that I never saw in real life, speaks to us. Lets embrace our shared space with pigeons (and all other living beings) more. Everything on earth is a mirror towards our human behavior and the time we are living in. Love each other and when something or someone needs help, reach out. Being present in life, be in silence with yourself sometimes and say hi to a happy flower.
This painting belongs now to @frits_natt . My Faroese friend that I got to know to short. Thanks for the beautiful conversations and the little trip to the chicken farm with your dog. 💙
Also big love for @fishfactoryis for the space, creating ideas and all the amazing connections that are being made. 💙
Lisa Wood is a visual artist, mother and partner from Scottish-Icelandic ancestry living in Treaty 2 Territory, Canada (Brandon, Manitoba).
Her figurative art practice—shaped by her upbringing with her single mother and her life-long chronic health conditions—broadly investigates inclusion, marginalization and interpersonal connections (lisawood.ca). She exhibits her painting and prints nationally and internationally, and currently holds the position of Associate Professor at IshKaabatens Waasa Gaa Inaabateg Department of Visual Art at Brandon University.
While at the Fish Factory Lisa was investigating her lost Icelandic heritage and the Icelandic-Manitoba diaspora to visually explore themes of intergenerational rupture and connection, healing, and reconciliation. Lisa’s ancestors were a part of a major wave of immigration from Iceland to North America from 1870 to 1914. Although she does not have connection to her Canadian paternal Icelandic family, through online research she located several distant Icelandic relatives who live in the Eastern Fjords. Their family tree branches from one single relative who stayed behind in Iceland while the entire intergenerational family immigrated to Canada.
Amazingly, during the residency Lisa was able to meet and spent time with this extended family. They gave her a warm and generous welcome, sharing food, family photos and genealogical research, taking her to on trips to various important family sites and gifting her thoughtful mementos. From these experiences she developed an interactive artwork - an over-sized book on translucent drafting film - that features shifting memories and overlayed histories, incorporating and reflecting on Icelandic mythology, genealogical research and family relationships.
Full Bio: https://fishfactory.is/2026/05/lisa-wood/
Naomi Ison is a Woven Textile Designer and Printmaker based in Nottingham, UK.
My practice explores shadow imagery and ephemeral moments. I am interested in how these fleeting moments offer momentary connection with our surrounding environment, an opportunity for calm in the turbulence and busyness of contemporary life.
Prior to arriving at the Fish Factory, I had been exploring dry-point printing processes. Throughout my residency this became my focus, developing a series of dry-point prints responding to the Icelandic landscape, its shifting light and the fleeting shadows that shape our perception of place. My time at the Fish Factory quickly became about more than making prints; it offered a space to slow down, a space for calm.
The residency deepened the joy found in collaborative making and kinship, shaped through our shared studio space and collective rhythms. Thank you to my wonderful fellow residents, Adele, Elise, Fien, Lulu, Marina and Peter, I am deeply grateful for our month spent in Stöðvarfjörður.
To Kris and Lukas, thank you for creating a space for us to dream.
Full Bio: https://fishfactory.is/2026/05/naomi-ison/
Nora Fuchs is a sculptor from Germany and lives in Berlin and Dortmund. She has been a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund since 2003. There she teaches in the bachelor’s program in three-dimensional design and in the master’s program in scenography and is active in a network for the improvement of artistic teaching at universities. It is her second stay in the fishfactory in Stödvarfjödur.
“It’s nice to be back. I had the opportunity to try out new ideas, experiment, and find a wonderful setting at the factory to present the results. The first few days felt like spring; there were some glorious, summery days, and in the last few days, winter returned with lots of snow and a yellow severe weather warning—which once again made me reflect on the power of nature and the smallness of humanity.
As a new project, I’ve started recreating my mother’s evening gowns. She had such beautiful dresses, all hanging in her closet, some of them wrapped in cellophane. As a child, I loved sitting in that closet, feeling the texture of the fabrics, the colors, and the sheen, and trying on the dresses. This work is linked to many memories and thoughts of my mother from the 1970s. I also reflected on that time through collages. As a second project, I completed a photo film about the Finnish summer.
It was shown on-site in a cardboard box modeled after an Icelandic house. It was a quiet month—such a beautiful, concentrated, and focused time—that it’s worth returning there and enjoying this place.
THANK YOU to everyone at and around the Fishfactory! Special thanks go to the Knitting Club and Phora, the lady who donated her collection of pins! “
Full Bio: https://fishfactory.is/2026/04/nora-fuchs-2/
As the First Day of Summer arrives this Thursday, and with lóa, oystercatchers, and geese returning to the fjord, we invite you to join us for an Open House / Open Studio on Sunday, 26 April at 2 pm, with a short artist talk, show and tell, and maybe some music.
poster by @vivian.glz
UPPBÓKAÐ!
Í kvöld heldur Wiola Ujadowska leirnámskeið í Sköpunarmiðstöðinni á Stöðvarfirði. Vegna mikillar eftirspurnar var ákveðið að bjóða upp á annað námskeið eftir viku sem hef líka fyllst!
Það er frábært að fá svona góða þátttöku og finna áhuga íbúa Fjarðabyggðar á því sem listamennirnir í Þórsmörk eru að gera hverju sinni. Eftir helgi verður auglýst opin vinnustofa hjá Wiolu fyrir þau sem hafa áhuga á því að kynna sér hennar eigin verk.
Community Ceramics Course at the Fish Factory 🎏
Our ceramics workshop with Rósa Valtingojer is now underway. Participants have been getting to know the clay through hand-building, shaping their own pieces, and exploring different ways of working with form and decoration.
The workshop continues on April 29, when the pieces will be glazed before the final results are revealed a couple of days later.
This course is supported by Sterkur Stöðvarfjörður.
—
Leirnámskeið fyrir samfélagið í Sköpunarmiðstöðinni 🎏
Leirnámskeiðið með Rósu Valtingojer er hafið. Þátttakendur hafa verið að kynnast leirnum, prófa handmótun og þróa sína eigin muni með mismunandi aðferðum í formi og skreytingu.
Námskeiðið heldur áfram 29. apríl, þegar hlutirnir verða glerungaðir áður en lokaútkoman kemur í ljós nokkrum dögum síðar.
Námskeiðið er styrkt af Sterkum Stöðvarfirði.
