
Nepo-baby with superstar singer mum insists it ‘didn't help her' land movie role – can you guess who she is?
The 22-year-old is studying at Central Saint Martins in London and said that having famous parents is often "disguised as a benefit".
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She is studying at Central Saint Martins and has modelled for MiuMiu
Credit: Instagram / @d0lgur
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Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney is the daughter of a huge pop star
Credit: Instagram / @d0lgur
Her mum earned 15 Grammy nominations throughout her 40-year career, and forged a path in the art and fashion industries.
In the 1980s she shot to fame as the lead singer of The Sugarcubes.
A decade later, she'd branched off and quickly established herself as a solo artist with instantly recognisable vocals.
Have you guessed who this nepo baby is and who her famous parents are?
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It's Isadora Bjarkardottir Barney - the daughter of Iceland's most eccentric export,
Isadora's dad, Matthew Barney, is an American contemporary artist and film director.
She was born in London and grew up between New York and Reykjavik after her parents split in 2013.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, she said: "People have preconceived ideas about me, based on what they think they know about my family.
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"I hope I don't sound bitter, because it's such a gift. I just mean that it's a challenge discerning what's what. But you get pretty good at it, eventually."
She also said that her parents are the first people she goes to when she has an idea or needs creative advice.
"But then there is the other kind of benefit that disguises itself as a benefit but doesn't really serve you, which is nepotism."
Isadora admitted that financially, it's helpful to have wealthy parents, but said that in terms of "uncovering how she sees the world or how she relates to it", she said it "doesn't help".
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Bjork has earned a reputation as being an art project in motion - and it seems Isadora is following in her footsteps.
The youngster modelled for MiuMiu when she was just 20 years old.
She was also on the cover of The Gentlewoman magazine in 2022.
Isadora landed the lead role in The Mountain, where she plays Anna, a teenage musician trying to navigate her life after the sudden death of her mother.
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The role came to her by chance after a former crew member she'd worked on a TV series with previously and remembered she'd acted before.
In 2022, she played a small role in The Northman, which starred her mum.
She played a singing Viking slave alongside Alexander Skarsgard,
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Bjork and Isadora at the 2005 Venice Film Festival
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Bjork and Matthew split in 2013
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Bjork has enjoyed a huge career as a singer, performer and fashion icon
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MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – JULY 24: Bjork performing at the Blue Dot Festival in 2022 in Manchester
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Irish Examiner
32 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Sam Gilliam: IMMA exhibition underlines impact of Irish visits on output of US artist
Sam Gilliam was an American abstract artist who revolutionised the display of work in gallery spaces. Draping unstretched canvases from the ceilings, and arranging industrial fabric on the floor, he blurred the line between painting and sculpture, and helped shape the development of installation art in the 1960s and '70s. Gilliam broke ground also by becoming the first African American artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1972. By the time of his passing, aged 88, in June 2022, he had enjoyed any number of public commissions and major museum shows across the US. Although Gilliam is not as well-known on this side of the Atlantic, he visited Ireland in the early 1990s, and was greatly moved by the experience. His stay is commemorated in Sewing Fields, the new exhibition of his work curated by Mary Cremin and Seán Kissane at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin. 'When we first started talking about this exhibition,' says Cremin, 'I met Gilliam's widow, Annie Gawlak. She came to IMMA and told us about how Gilliam had completed a three-week artist's residency at the Ballinglen Art Foundation in County Mayo in 1993. 'Gilliam normally worked on large canvases with petroleum paints, but he wasn't allowed to bring those paints on the plane, so he dyed and painted fabric and sent it on ahead to Ballinaglen. And when he got there, he worked with a local seamstress to collage pieces of the fabric together, so they're kind of stacked on top of each other. You'll see one of those pieces in the exhibition, it's part of a series of four called Cottages. I think the experience was quite transformative for him.' Gilliam was one of the many international artists who have spent time in Ballinaglen with the support of the arts foundation established in the early 1990s by Margo Dolan and the late Peter Maxwell, who owned a prestigious art gallery in Philadelphia. The foundation runs workshops, residencies and fellowships, along with education and outreach programmes and a museum of art. 'It's this amazing place in the middle of the village,' says Cork-born curator Cremin. 'People like Howardena Pindell, who we've shown at IMMA, and Jo Baer, who was very influenced by the archaeology in the area, have all done residencies there. It's very interesting that Ireland has had a real impact on these artists, and a real resonance with them in terms of art making.' Down Patricks-head, by Sam Gilliam. When Cremin began work on the Sewing Fields exhibition, she discovered that Gilliam had once shown in Dublin. 'In the early 1970s, he had a solo exhibition with a gallerist named Oliver Dowling, who passed away just last year. Dowling was a maverick, and quite an influential person within the arts in Ireland. He helped set up the ROSC exhibitions. But it was news both to Annie and to us that Gilliam had ever exhibited in Ireland. We don't think he came over for the opening, but everyone involved is dead now, so it's not possible to say for sure.' Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1933. 'Growing up where he did,' says Cremin, 'where there's a massive cotton industry, he was probably seeing a lot of quilting and that type of making. We have an exhibition of quilts from Gee's Bend in Mississippi on at IMMA at the moment, and we know that Gilliam had several Gee's Bend quilts in his own art collection. There's a correlation between this idea of stitching and layering, telling narratives through the fabrics, that I think is referenced in his work as well.' In Gilliam's youth, his family migrated north. He studied art at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and then settled in Washington DC. 'He was part of the colour field movement, with people like Kenneth Noland. They made minimal abstract paintings. But later on, he made works that were much more three-dimensional, or sculptural, and he started really playing around with the paint, scraping, stitching and layering. There was really a lot of improvisation. 'He was very interested in jazz as well. Improvisation is very important in jazz, of course, but it's also very important to the kind of way he worked. There were no limitations in terms of how he worked with paint or with the canvas. He was very liberated.' Gilliam came of age during the Civil Rights Movement in America. 'That was, very obviously, hugely important to everyone,' says Cremin. 'And for Gilliam, being a black artist coming up at that time was a big deal, because it was predominantly white males in the art world. He wasn't making work that was overtly political, he was making art for art's sake. But that said, he was very involved in the establishment of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and he was part of a very important exhibition called X in America. 'And also, I guess he does engage politically, in that a lot of his paintings are called after significant black figures, like Martin Luther King. There's one piece in the exhibition here called Count On Us, which is this beautiful three-coloured canvas that's referencing when Obama was voted in as president. It was a very aspirational and very exciting time. So, he referenced politics in a different way.' Mary Cremin, curator. Sewing Fields was organised in collaboration with the Sam Gilliam Foundation, which is run by the late artist's family. 'Gilliam was very supportive of young black artists, and his foundation has continued that work,' says Cremin. 'They also collaborate on exhibitions such as this, ensuring that Gilliam's work is shown as he would have liked. Some of the work in Sewing Fields has never been shown before, and some of the technicians who'd been with Gilliam since the 1980s came over to help with the installation. 'It's only two years since Gilliam passed, but I guess it's important for his work to continue to grow, and for people to have an increased awareness around him. In terms of contemporary Ireland, this is not just the first time he's been shown here since the 1970s, it's his first museum show here as well. Many of these works have never been exhibited before, and many people are travelling over from America to see the show. It's really exciting for us.' Gilliam's time in Mayo may have been brief, but the landscape had a big influence on his work, says Cremin. 'Even towards the end of his life, he was making these really large paintings, with thick impasto, he called Downpatrick Head and Irish, County Mayo. As Annie says, he always referenced back to his time in Ireland.' Sam Gilliam, Sewing Fields runs at the Irish Museum of Modern Art until January 25, 2026. Further information:


RTÉ News
37 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Concern over future of planned €300m Wicklow film studio
Concerns have been raised about the future of a €300m film studio planned for Greystones in Co Wicklow because three years after the project was launched, there has been no sign of progress. Locals say there's a lack of information about what's happening to the site, and expressed concern about the €24m of taxpayers money committed to the project. They say if the media campus, which was expected to create 1,500 jobs, is no longer viable, the land should be used for other business purposes. Plans for state of the art studio and production facilities on the 44 acre site were unveiled to much fanfare in 2022, promising to build Ireland's largest tv and film campus, which was to have begun operating in 2024. A consortium called Hackman Capital Partners took a lease on IDA land for the Greystones Media Campus for 999 years at just under €600 a year Louise Gaskin, Chair of the East Wicklow Business Network, says her members are concerned about the lack of progress on the site and the "void" of information about the project. "It would bring a lot of community employment and it would bring for businesses locally, huge economic development. "Lying idle, it's becoming an ugly site, overgrown, just lying there doing nothing. "First of all we were being told it was about the actors strike going on. Then we were told it's commercially sensitive. Then we're getting blanks. "No one's coming back with information. So who has the information? Someone has to know something." Ms Gaskin said that - if there are questions about the viability of the project - she would like to see the lease agreement revoked and the land put to other business use. Since the launch of the Greystones Media Campus three years ago, planning permission has also been granted for a large media campus in South Dublin called Dublin Fields. However, those in the industry say that the facilities at Greystones are still badly needed. Larry Bass, Founder and CEO of ShinAwil Productions, says the lack of studio space in Ireland meant that his company had to build a new studio to film Dancing With the Stars when it returned after Covid-19 lockdowns. He said that, despite global uncertainty and the threat by Donald Trump of tariffs on the industry, Ireland's film industry personnel remain in demand, but the lack of studio space is a barrier to attracting productions here "Apple, Amazon, Netflix, the BBC, the big American networks, these studios will all still, thankfully, be creating new shows. "We're an English language country, we've got a fantastic crew base. "It has evolved from, maybe five or six thousand people working in the industry 20 years ago to over thirty thousand people, highly skilled, highly sought after. "All we need is the raw material, the place, to build. And you know, this has never been a truer statement. If you build it, watch them come." The Department of Finance said that while investment is likely to be on a phased basis, it can't say how much of the €24m committed to the Greystones Media Campus has been spent to date. It also says that the current Minister has not had any engagement on the project from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund or the consortium behind it, Hackman Capital Partners. A spokesman for the consortium said that they will make a statement on the project in the coming months.


The Irish Sun
43 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
‘I'm so proud to be English' – Chloe Kelly steals the show after scoring winning goal in TWO Euros finals
ENGLAND'S saviour Chloe Kelly stole the nation's hearts with her passion - and her winning penalty. The 27-year-old Euros . 4 Chloe Kelly has ice in her veins to score the crucial penalty Credit: Getty 4 Chloe Kelly celebrates after her winning spot kick Credit: Shutterstock Editorial 4 Chloe Kelly's famous celebration at Wembley after winning Euro 2022 Credit: PA And three years ago, she scored the winning goal in the final at Wembley as She famously whipped her top off and ran around the pitch at the winning moment. And once again Kelly led the celebrations in Basel . After booting in the all-important goal, Kelly grabbed a microphone from ITV to belt out Sweet Caroline with the fans. read more on the euros And then when she went in front of the cameras, she sealed her place as a national treasure with her pride at winning the Euros again. Kelly, speaking to BBC One: "I am so proud of this team. So grateful to wear this badge. So proud to be English. "I was cool, I was composed. I knew I was going to hit the back of the net. I don't miss penalties twice. "Unbelievable. All the staff behind us and Most read in Football BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS "It is going to be crazy. I hope the whole of England comes out to support us and shows their love to these girls as they deserve it." Kelly is the new favourite with bookmaker Coral to win the 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. her odds were slashed to 5-4 (from 20-1) following her winning penalty for England in the 2025 Women's Euros final. Goalkeeper England star Beth Mead forced to retake penalty that she SCORED after rule change in Euro 2025 final Fans immediately paid tribute the nation's heroine. One wrote on X: "Chloe's got that icy vibe" while another wrote: "Better pen taker than any one on the men's side." Another wrote: "Chloe Kelly showed incredible calm and confidence when it mattered most. Truly ice in her veins!" One fan predicted: "Balon Dor Chloe!" and another said: "She has been sensational." England are queens of Europe England legend Lucy Bronze reveals she played Player ratings - see how England's finest in wild celebrations on the pitch Chloe Kelly steals the show after Eagle-eyed fans stunned at where Joyous 4 Chloe Kelly and Khiara Keating celebrate on the pitch Credit: Shutterstock Editorial