Education
Nína started studying art in Iceland and moved to Copenhagen in 1935 where she studied art at the Royal Academy of Artist
Nína started studying art in Iceland and moved to Copenhagen in 1935 where she studied art at the Royal Academy of Artist
Nína Tryggvadóttir is one of Iceland"s most important abstract expressionist artists and one of very few Icelandic female artists of her generation. Mainly working in painting she also did paper collage, stained glass work, mosaic and more. She frequently based her compositions on nature where Icelandic landscape and the Nordic light played an important role.
After graduating from the Academy in 1939 she spent time studying in Paris and was quite taken by the city.
In 1942 she moved to New York to study at the Art Students League of New York and develop her art further. There she took an active part in the city’s art scene.
Later that year she went to Iceland for a short visit. There she was informed that she was not able to return to the United States of America because she was suspected of being a Communist sympathizer.
During her exile from the United States of America she lived in various places in Europe, Iceland being one of them.
During those years Nina kept on making and practicing her art, exhibiting in many places and traveling through Europe. They returned to New York in 1959 where Nína continued to work on her art and exhibiting mostly in Europe. During all her years abroad Nína kept on exhibiting in Iceland and was her input very valuable to the art society in Iceland.