Gudrun Havsteen-Mikkelsen (DK) is a research-based designer and visual journalist working between Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. Her work navigates social, political, and environmental narratives, with a particular focus on the Arctic region and its potential futures. Her practice engages with themes of mineral exploration and extraction in the Arctic, geopolitics, data visualization, Nordic colonialism, and archival research. Through investigative and design-driven methodologies, she examines the mechanisms of mineral adventures, territorial narratives, and collective memories.
Beyond her multidisciplinary design practice, she works as a freelance researcher, designer, educator, podcast-host and self-taught cartographer. Her role as a guest tutor and external lecturer at Iceland University of the Arts has expanded to include talks and workshops at various institutions and venues in and outside the Arctic region. Recent collaborations include producing podcasts through Radio Arctic (co-founder and co-manager) for Polar Journal, guest tutoring at Vilnius Art Academy and Testrup Højskole, and publishing research for The Arctic Institute, publishing the book, ‘Snowblindness - Let’s talk about storytelling, colonialism, Netflix and my great grandfather’ through Onomatopee, along with exhibitions abroad and in Denmark - latest with the exhibition at Officinet, and more.
She holds a Master of Arts (MA) at the new established master program GEO-Design at Design Academy Eindhoven (2020-2022), and a one-year MA in the Design Department - Think Tank for Visual Strategies from Sandberg Instituut (2019-2020), a BA in Product Design at Iceland Academy of the Arts (2015-2017) and Industrial Design & Ceramic Form at The Royal Danish Academy, Design School (2014-2015).
Gudrun has been selected for several residencies; NØ School (July 2025) in Nevers, France; Nuuk Art Museum (Aug.-Nov. 2024) in Nuuk, Greenland; Art Production Residency at Danish Workshops for the Arts - Textile Workshop (Apr.-Jun. 2024 and again in May 2026 at the Metal Workshop), in Copenhagen, Denmark; SÍM Residency (Apr. and again in Aug.-Oct. 2023) in Reykjavik, Iceland; and finally at a Work Desk Residency at Art Hub Copenhagen (Aug. 2019) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Her practice has been supported by a range of grants and funding bodies, including the Danish Arts Foundation's career program for emerging talents, The Young Artistic Elite (2023) and Officinet’s New Talents (2025).
More content can be found at Vimeo, LinkedIn, Audio and Radio Arctic’s Instagram. 
More information about the following works; Archive in the Mist, Promises For Business, Snowblindness, Radio Arctic. 
Portfolio and CV available upon request.
Contact: gudrun_eriksen@hotmail.com

The images above are partly taken by Kirstine Autzen, Femke Reijerman, Mihaly Stefanovicz and about today.