Hanna Dís Whitehead graduated cum laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011. She was nominated by her department for both the René Smeets Prize and the Melkweg Award. Her work moves fluidly between art, design, and craft, combining storytelling with an ongoing exploration of material, colour, and technique.

Based in the remote landscape of Hornafjörður in southeast Iceland, she is driven by curiosity, intuition, and a hands-on approach to making. Working across disciplines—including ceramics, wood work, rug tufting, glass, furniture making, felting, and the rare art of straw marquetry—she continually expands her material vocabulary. She sees her practice as a marathon rather than a sprint, allowing ideas, techniques, and materials to evolve over many years instead of pursuing quick results.

Central to her work is a commitment to local materials and to the rhythms of the landscape. Her practice is shaped as much by the seasons as by the materials themselves. She harvests and hand-dyes straw for marquetry during the late summer harvest, works with wool from local sheep after they are shorn each autumn, and incorporates reclaimed materials from nearby hardware stores. Through meticulous craftsmanship, she transforms overlooked resources into luminous surfaces filled with colour, depth, contrast, and shine, bringing warmth, joy, and light into the domestic landscape.

Hanna develops her own methods through experimentation. Her work balances roughness with softness, structure with spontaneity, creating tactile objects that invite curiosity and reveal new details over time. Although carefully crafted, her pieces retain the presence of the hand, celebrating the subtle irregularities and material honesty that give each work its unique character. Each piece reflects an ongoing dialogue between material, maker, and viewer.

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Studio Hanna Whitehead has exhibited internationally across Europe and the United States, participating in solo or in group shows in leading design fairs and exhibitions including Stockholm Furniture Fair, London Design Fair, Helsinki Design Week, Vienna Design Week, CHART Art Fair, and Révélations Biennial. The studio's work has also been presented in galleries, museums, and cultural institutions in Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Studio Hanna Whitehead has been featured for example on Sight Unseen, AD France Collector, Damn magazine, Frame web, Dezeen, Elle Decor web, Milk decoration, Core magazine, Herdes magazine, Grapevine magazine, Wallpaper online, Vogue, Vogue Living NL, Vogue Skandinavia, The Nordic Style mag, Design diffusion magazine, Gray magazine, Designmilk, Say Hi to, Oak the nordic journal, FORM magazine, Good life magazine, De Staandard magazine, The Superloop, Monocle radio, Gray Design Magazine , Design wanted, Design diffusion magazine, It is Nice that & Another Magazine and more.

Hanna´s work is in the collection of The Icelandic museum of design and applied arts & Svavarssafn Art museum as well as in private collections.

Hanna Dís Whitehead has received numerous competitive grants, including a 12-month Icelandic Artists' Salary, multiple grants from the Icelandic Design Fund for research, development, travel, and exhibitions, support from Myndstef's Visual Artists' Fund, and funding from South Iceland developement fund for material research.

In 2025 Hanna got a Fulbright Fellowship to attend a summer course in Haystack-Mountain school of Crafts.

Hanna Dís Whitehead received the Hornafjörður Cultural Award in 2021, in recognition of her contribution to cultural life in Hornafjörður and her work in art and design. The municipality also highlighted her efforts in organizing exhibitions and children's art workshops through the Hornafjörður Cultural Centre and Svavarssafn, as well as her growing international profile as a designer.

Part-time lecturer at the Iceland University of the Arts and the Reykjavík School of Visual Arts.

For inquiries regarding acquisitions, please contact the studio by email studio@hannawhitehead.com

Studio in Höfn open by appointment-More then welcome to contact through email or instagram

We work with DHL with shipping world wide.

Selected work available through

HAKK Gallery- Reykjavík

Listval - Art Consultancy, Reykjavík

Smaller ceramics and other things available:

Studio Hanna Whitehead webshop

Also in :

Reykjavík art museum shop- Hafnarhús, Reykjavík art museum shop- Ásmundarsafn, Icelandic Design museum, Gerðarsafn museum - Kópavogur & Kiosk Grandi.

Selection of exhibitions

2026

Rolling snowball, Ars Lunga contemporary Art museum, Djúpavogur, Iceland, Curated group exhibition

Home Sweet home, MAD, Brussel, Belgium, group exhibition curated by Connie Hüsser

Whats hidden in the studio, Icelandic museum of Design and Applied arts, Garðabær, solo exhibition

Straw marquetry Part 1 - Sprouts, Hakk Gallery, Reykjavík, solo exhibition.

Nytjar, Svavarsafn Art Museum, Höfn, with Guðlaug Mía and Steinunn Önnudóttir.

2025

Brjálað að gera, Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavík, group exhibition

Jólagestir , Gallery Port, Reykjavík, group exhibition.

Stjakar, Hakk gallery, Reykjavík, group exhibition.

Fokus, Vienna design week, Vienna, group exhibition.

Sumargleðin, Gallery Port, Reykjavík, group exhibition.

Stráfletir, Stúkusalur, Höfn, solo exhibition.

Economic interest and a story of a nation, Gallery Port, Reykjavík, group exhibition.

Hæ/Hi - Objects for hosting, Landsbankahúsið, Reykjavík, group exhibition.

Hooked, Snagar, Hakk gallery, Reykjavík group exhibition.

2024

Connecting dots, Otto, Hornafjörður, solo exhibition.

Curated by FLD, Spinneriet, Gothenburg, Sweden group exhibition.

Attributes 2, Stúkusalur, part of art festival Umhverfing 5, Höfn.

Hæ/hiVol III, Railspur gallery, Seattle, USA

Hæ/Hi Vol III, Icelandic Embassy-3 days of design, Copenhagen, Danmark, group exhibition.

Attributes, Mosfellsssbær Gallery,Mosfellsbær, Solo exhibition.

Echo, Rammagerðin flag ship store, with Petit Art Prints.

Hæ/HI: Vol III, Landsbankahúsið, Group exhibition.

Stockholm furniture fair- Greenhouse, Stockholm.

2023

Under/Over, Ottó, Höfn, Solo exhibition

Jólagestir Gallery Port, Gallerý Port, group exhibition

Hæ/Hi, Home Team Gallery, Seattle, USA

Hæ/Hi, Ásmundarsalur, group exhibition.

Margt smátt, Harbinger project space, Group exhibition

Gentle Glow, Gallery Port, Solo exhibition

2022

Jólagestir Gallery Port, Gallery Port, group exhibition

Untitled, Embassy of Iceland in Helsinki, solo exhibition

HÆ/HI, Bianco Gallery, Seattle-USA, group exhibition

Continued, Ottó, Hornafjordur, Solo exhibition

Spin, Gerðarsafn art museum, Kópavogur - Solo exhibition

Hæ/Hi, Stak event space, Reykjavík -group exhibition

Another house, Ásmundarsalur Gallery, Reykjavík

2021

Fimm pottþétt í fötum, Gallery Port, Reykjavík

Stance - linear narratives, Berg Contemporary Gallery, Reykjavík

Transition, The Nordic House, Reykjavík - solo exhibition

Point of view, Harbinger project space, Reykjavík

Hönnun í anda Ásmundar, Reykjavík Art museum- Ásmundarsafn, Reykjavík

2020

Claying with type with Guðmundur Úlfarsson, Gallery Port, Reykjavík

2019

Crossovers by Adorno, Old Truman brewery, London design fair, London

Senseware -group exhibition. Ivana Helskinki house. Helsinki design week

Vicious Circle vol 02 with Raili Keiv, Reykjavík art museum- Kjarvalsstaðir, Designmarch, Reykjavík,

Now Nordic by Adorno, Reykjavík art museum-Hafnarhús, Designmarch, Reykjavík,

2018

Now Nordic by Adorno, Old Truman Brewery, London design fair, London

Now Nordic by Adorno, Den frie centre of contemporary art, Chart art fair, Copenhagen

Now Nordic by Adorno, Old Truman Brewery, London design fair, London

Another Dialog, solo show. The Culture house, Hverfisgata, Designmarch, Reykjavík

Illikamburwith fashion label Milla Snorrason, Harbinger project space, Designmarch, Reykjavík.

2017

Fact based myth with Norwegian artist Mia Melvær. Icelandic design center, Reykjavík.

2016

Viscious Circle with Raili Keiv. Estonian museum of applied art and design, Tallinn, Estonia.

Weaving DNA​​, Lighthouse-Scotland´s center for design and architecture, Glasgow, Scotland. With Claire Anderson.

Weaving DNA-Esja​​, Designmarch,Hverfisgallerí, Reykjavík, Iceland. With Claire Anderson

2015

Magic language///Whispering game​​, Revelations- fine art fair, Paris, France. Curated group exhibition.

Weaving DNA-the tribe​​, National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavík,. With Claire Anderson

Glazed Dialog​​,Designmarch, Hannesarholt, Reykjavík, Iceland. Solo exhibition

WE LIVE HERE​​, Stockholm design week, Stockholm, Sweden. Curated group exhibition

2014

European Ceramic context​​-New talent, Bornholm, Danmark

Forest forest/Metsa Meiniki, ​​Salakaupa, Helsinki, Finland Group exhibition

 Past in present​​, Hannesarholt, Reykjavík, Iceland. Solo exhibition

Teaser​​- with Attikatti, Spark design Space, Reykjavík, Iceland

2012

Dialog​​, Spark design space, Reykjavík, Iceland Solo exhibition