Silja Leifsdottir

Silja Leifsdottir (b. 1984) is a curator at Bergen Kunsthall in Norway. She was born in Iceland but grew up in Bodø, north of Norway. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art Photography from Glasgow School of Art (2005-2008) and a MA in Curatorial Practice form the University of Bergen, Norway (2015-2017). In between she also took a course in public art, initiated by KORO, Public Art Norway as well as studying culture management at the university in Tromsø, Norway. From 2017-2022 she worked as a curator for the Norwegian Sculptors Society in Oslo (Norsk Billedhoggerforening). From 2019-2022 she was chair on the board of The Norwegian Association of Curators.

She is the co-founder of SKREID publishing, an independent publisher of Nordic photobooks. She was a co-curator at the artist-run gallery Holodeck in Oslo for two years (2012-2013) and is the co-founder and current director of Oslo Art Guide (2011). Parallel to her own practice/projects, she worked as a coordinator and producer at Fotogalleriet (photographers gallery) in Oslo (2011-2017). While running Holodeck, she initiated Grønland Gallery Weekend (2013) together with other art spaces at the east side of Oslo which later transitioned into Oslo Art Weekend (2014), now also organized by Oslo Art Guide.

She is currently employed as the exhibition curator at Bergen Kunsthall, where she is responsible for curating the four-six main exhibitions per year, sharing the responsibility with the director. She is currently working on an upcoming exhibition with Edgar Calel, his first large solo representation in Scandinavia, as well as an exhibition with the Swedish artist Åsa Elzen, both opening in August 2024. In January she will open a group exhibition with Tejal Shah, Nikita Gale, Tracey Rose, Ventura Profana, Dora Budor and Tzianzhuo Chen, co-curated with her colleague Nora Swantje Almes.

Silja Leifsdottir, Curator, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway, has been awarded by OCA - Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Oslo.