Karolina Larusdottir

(1944-2019)

Karolina Larusdottir was an Icelandic-born painter and printmaker known for carefully staged narrative scenes that combine domestic settings, memory, and subtle surrealism. Born in Reykjavik, she studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, and later at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She settled in Britain and became an important figure in contemporary figurative printmaking, elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1994. Her work frequently depicts enclosed interiors, isolated figures, and ambiguous encounters, often drawing on Icelandic folklore, dreams, and theatrical composition. Alongside painting, she produced a significant body of etchings and lithographs distinguished by precise draughtsmanship and atmospheric tension.