Born in Reykjavik in 1960, Hannes Sigurdsson was educated at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, University College, London, and the University of California at Berkeley. After receiving his MA in art history he moved to New York where he wrote articles about art and curated exhibitions in Iceland

From December 1990 Sigurdsson has directed exhibitions at Café Mokka in Reykjavík, and his productions there now number nearly eighty. Mokka was founded in 1958 and is the oldest and best known artists’ café in Reykjavik with an unbroken history of nearly six hundred exhibitions. Since 1990 the shows have ranged from one-man exhibitions with established local and foreign artists to thematic exhibitions and highly elaborate projects.

On returning to Iceland in 1995 Sigurdsson became director of exhibitions at the Municipal Cultural Centre of Reykjavík, Gerðuberg, where he mounted fourteen exibitions in two years and initiated a popular series of symposiums. The symposiums each presented the life and work of a single artist and involved a panel discussion, a two-part exhibition and finally a published précis of the proceedings.

In January 1996 Sigurdsson founded Gallery Sjónarhóll in Reykjavík. Sjónarhóll was open for some eighteen months and hosted nineteen exhibitions by well-known Icelandic and International artists.

Sigurdsson has written extensively on a wide range of art topics but his main focus in recent years has been on curatorial work.