Katrín Ólína Pétursdóttir was born in Iceland in 1967. She studied Industrial Design in Paris and worked in international design studios before establishing on her own in 2007. She now lives in Reykjavik and Helsinki.
Over the course of her career Ólína has cultivated a provocative two- dimensional graphic language that explores the imagination. Her work has been applied in the fields of product design, fashion, interiors, print and animation. She has created large immersive graphic installations at the National Gallery in Oslo and Reykjavik Art Museum and won numerous awards for her work, including Forum Aid, SEGD and the DV Culture Award in Iceland. Her working methods combine digital technologies from 2D flat work to 3D printing. Ólína has created a world of inner landscapes and otherworldly archetypal creatures and through years of research and experimentation, she has invented a new language of ‘technological mythology’. The Primitiva project: Primitiva-Talismans and Primitiva, Book of Talismans, launching during Helsinki Design Week 2015, is the culmination of these archetypal explorations.
Since 2014, Katrín Ólína has been in residency at Aalto digital design laboratory’s (ADD) and Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) where she has explored existential questions in the Information Age by delving into the potential of digital design and manufacturing. Ólína’s work has materialized into the collection of the Primitiva-Talismans, a project that aims to utilize the potential of today’s digital technologies to reconnect with the physical world.
Click the link to read about the project in Form magazine: