RÚNA MAGNÚSSON

Science & Illustrations & Photography

  • Saxifraga
    My very first paid assignment! The Arctic biology department at UNIS asked me to make a linocut of Saxifraga oppositifolia,… Read more: Saxifraga
  • Leaf Prints
    I like to collect and press leaves, and then use them for printmaking. I found a forgotten stack of pressed… Read more: Leaf Prints
  • High Hopes
    After a short trip from Longyearbyen to the UNIS student cabin in Bjorndalen, we climbed Fuglefjella. It was a splendid… Read more: High Hopes
  • The Nature of Rain
    A new series of acetone transfer prints of research activities on Svalbard in summer 2023. We used an irrigation setup… Read more: The Nature of Rain
  • Restless bones
    The topmost layers of permafrost soils go through cycles of thawing and refreezing each year, like a breathing and living… Read more: Restless bones
  • Mirages
    I used acetone transfer printing on some photos that I took during my 2023 field campaign on Svalbard. The nebulous… Read more: Mirages
  • Birds
    Many of my colleagues and friends are birdwatchers. I’ve always joked around with them that birds are extremely overrated, compared… Read more: Birds
  • Some Svalbard Plants
    High-Arctic plants species challenge you to get on all fours, with your face very close to the ground, and take… Read more: Some Svalbard Plants
  • Endalen
    A linocut of the old cable cart systems in Endalen, used to transport coals from the mines to the harbour.… Read more: Endalen
  • Rowan
    Prints of a dried rowan leaf. I laid the dried leaf on a sheet of linoleum with paint rolled on.… Read more: Rowan
  • Vaðlaheiði
    Mountain ranges of Vaðlaheiði, as seen from Hjalteyri across the fjord. Linocuts printed in several layers, with slightly different colours… Read more: Vaðlaheiði
  • Miru Mir
    Pyramiden used to be a Soviet mining settlement, a kind of polar and communist version of the American dream. Only… Read more: Miru Mir
  • Waiting to return
    In winter 2020 we were still optimistic that the covid pandemic would have passed before summer, and that our preparation… Read more: Waiting to return
  • Succession
    An important component of my PhD research was to identify succession mechanisms in tundra areas that had collapses and become… Read more: Succession
  • Oak
    Prints of dried oak leaves pressed onto linoleum with paint rolled on. Even the “failed” prints can become something interesting… Read more: Oak
  • Messages in wood
    Part of my PhD research consisted of tree ring analysis on the Arctic dwarf birch, Betula nana. I’ve come to… Read more: Messages in wood
  • Birch
    Birches always remind me of the north, with downy birch and dwarf birch being common species in subarctic and arctic… Read more: Birch
  • Arnarstapi
    A tiny village on Snæfellsnes, Jules Verne’s last stop before entering the volcano in Journey to the Center of the… Read more: Arnarstapi
  • Relic Species
    Throughout the Netherlands there are traces in the landscape of former ice ages and times when the Netherlands was a… Read more: Relic Species
  • Rock
    Linocut of a rock, printed in different styles.
  • Thaw
    Thawing of permafrost is more than just a phase transition from solid to liquid water in the ground. It is… Read more: Thaw
  • Rifstangi
    A linocut of the abandoned farm near Raufarhöfn. I dabbed away the paint a little bit with tissue to create… Read more: Rifstangi
  • Fern
    A print of a dried fern leaf. I laid the dried fern leaf (the common polypody) on a sheet of… Read more: Fern
  • Mindfuck
    The last place you hope to find your work is in your beer glass in the weekend. But the foamy… Read more: Mindfuck

Rúna Magnússon