Ragnar Kjartansson is one of the most respected Icelandic artists – known for his video-work, paintings, performances and installations. Kjartansson exhibits a new art-piece especially created for the balcony of Akureyri Art Museum with a direct reference to the Akureyrian community, in his own words: “In Akureyri everything is a little bit more OK than …
Treasures of a Nation in the Culture House - Masterpieces of Icelandic Art. In this building the National Gallery of Iceland displays masterpieces of Icelandic art. Here are works of art dating from the latter half of the 19th century to the present day, that reflect the artists’ wide-ranging themes, offering visitors the welcome opportunity …
The exhibition Séstey / Hverfey presents new work by artist Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir, along with other artifacts she has placed in context with the permanent exhibition at Surtseyjarstofa in Vestmannaeyjar. Þorgerður´s exhibition addresses the notion of how a new place becomes actual in a cultural sense. Works in the exhibition are mappings of a place based …
ASÍ Art Museum’s Founding Collection from Ragnar Jónsson of Smári It was big news when the entrepreneur Ragnar Jónsson, known for his margarine factory Smári, decided to donate his collection of paintings to the Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASÍ) in the summer of 1961. Jónsson’s wish was to establish an art museum that would present …
The exhibition A Window in Reykjavík comprises a selection of works by Ásgrímur Jónsson, whose common factor is that they relate to the artist's surroundings in Reykjavík. The works form part of the collection of the National Gallery of Iceland; Ásgrímur Jónsson bequeathed to the Icelandic nation all his works of art, along with his …
We are pleased to announce the opening of i8 Grandi, a new gallery in Reykjavík that focuses on year-long, single-artist presentations. The inaugural year of i8 Grandi features In Relation to the Sun, an exhibition by Alicja Kwade (b. 1979, Katowice, Poland, lives and works in Berlin, Germany). The artist’s show, which includes installation, sculpture, and work on paper, is now open and will be on view until …
The outdoor, geothermal pool is the most interesting public sphere in Iceland. A place where strangers cross paths and acquaintances meet; it serves a purpose similar to the plaza in warmer climes, the pub in England or the café in France. It is a source of wellbeing and part of everyday life. The exhibition traces …
Erró is one of the few Icelandic artists who has gained a foothold in the international art scene. The Power of Images is a comprehensive overview of the artist's colourful career that has made use of various media in the visual arts. Within it you will find everything from performances, video works, graphics, multiples and …
Resistance is an interdisciplinary exhibition that bridges the gap between visual arts and science. The works on display are key works in the collection of the National Gallery of Iceland, that establish an interesting dialogue between art and science and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The word Resistance may be read in the context …
Gunnar Örn Gunnarsson held his first solo exhibition in Unuhús in 1970 and he came to make waves in the Icelandic art scene at the start of the 1970s, as his powerful work quickly drew attention to this young and self-taught artist. Straight away with his first exhibition, Gunnar Örn raised existential questions about the …
Gunnar Örn Gunnarsson: In the Depths of Your Own Awareness Read More »
If time is like a mountain that mankind climbs and climbs without ever reaching the top, art is that which we leave behind to mark the way along which we have already walked. What will the wayposts of the year 2022 look like? In these times which are defined by change, non-stop progress, information flow …
The first female photographers. Women pioneers of photography are spotlighted in an exhibition that opens on 21 May in the Photography Hall at the National Museum of Iceland. The exhibition In the shadow gives prominence to ten women photographers in Denmark, Iceland and on the Faroe Islands of the later 19th century. The title of …
In connection to the touring exhibition In the shadow, a special exhibition on the first Icelandic female photographer, Nicoline Weywadt, will be launched at the Wall on the ground floor of the National Museum of Iceland. On display are a few of her photographs as well as a blueprint of her photographic studio that she …
Cartoons and live pictures of plant-remnants, dust and garbage. Also, hybrid things which become grounded in an idea about measuring devices and vehicles as well as shelters or holes that are formed in damaged landscape. The sand is everywhere, visible or invisible: in the concrete walls, the optical equipment, telephone and in the landfill. The …
Gústav Geir Bollason: Sandtime Psalm of Fading Flowers Read More »
Ingunn Fjóla Ingþórsdóttir’s installation The Only Constant is Changebears an element of familiarity as the artist revisits and combines components from former works in a new manner. The multifaceted piece conforms to its own inner operating system on one hand and the presence of guests on the other, disguising the starting point of motion. The …
Ingunn Fjóla Ingþórsdóttir: The Only Constant is Change Read More »
The exhibition Liðamót / Ode to Join comprises on the one hand drawings made with oil and powdered pigments, and on the other three-dimensional pieces to be made directly into the the exhibition venue as a response to to the space. The Icelandic title Liðamót is a reference to the fact that where three or more joints …
“Oh steady now Everything in its place Steady now” – Jason Molina (Magnolia Electric Co. – Steady Now) There is a place for the inside and there is a place for the outside, Brák Jónsdóttir has made a place for the parts in between, a filter to blur these borders. In the exhibition See, there …
In Hallgrímskirkja square, three pairs of quiet figures appear. Armored, provocative beings confront vulnerable, androgynous figures who despite their apparent vulnerability stand strong against aggression. The interplay of opposites and antagonistic forces also sparks notions of fusion – of a possible dialogue, relations despite differences. The roots of Armors, Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir‘s stunning exhibition, go back …
Opposites and different things, attitudes and perspectives. What separates us can also connect us. This exhibition consists of work by five artists who work with black and white photography. The artists approach their subjects in different ways and the art pieces are multiple: landscape, people, stories, places and atmosphere. Opposites and fears, quiet and affection …
Auður Lóa Guðnadóttir (b. 1993) is an artist that plays on the border of the objective and the subjective, of sculpture and drawing, art and reality. She works with mundane phenomena, figurative imitation, and the visual language of both ancient and recent history. She seeks to activate the artwork itself, but always as an object …
Networking between East and North. Avant-garde artists from the Eastern Bloc wanted to connect to the Western art world in the sixties and seventies. At the same time, Icelandic art scene was opening to Fluxus and mail art due to the widespread networking by the artists and galleries such as SÚM and Gallery Suðurgata 7. …
Dieter Roth (1930—1998) was a pioneer who respected no boundaries: a thinker, trailblazer, poet, musician, filmmaker and visual artist. A less well-known aspect of his career is that he also made an impression with his creation of innovative jewellery, starting in Iceland in the late 1950s. The first pieces of jewellery designed by Roth were …
Photography becomes easier and more accessible and opposites become clearer as the darkness retreats with increased natural light. The action of photographing or forming light has many manifestations. In the exhibition Light Space– Shadow Space, natural light is photographed inside building interiors as well as outside in the twilight. That way, abstract forms and shadows …
Since 2016 Jessica Auer has been documenting the impact of mass tourism on Icelandic landscape and society. Working between Canada and her studio in Iceland, Jessica‘s travels between these countries coincided with the tourism boom and as such, she navigated the gap between being a foreigner and a local. She saw both sides of the …
image: Emma Heiðarsdóttir Opening 9 June, 17:00 at The Nordic House. Outdoors sculptures by a group of eight different artists will appear in several Reykjavík neighbourhoods during the festival. The Wheel is a series of outdoors exhibitions held around the city since 2018 by the Reykjavík Association of Sculptors to honour the 50th anniversary …
Stitches and Threads is an exhibition of works by contemporary Icelandic artists who embroider or make use of the needle and thread as a tool in their art. They either look to the past to work with the heritage of the craftsmanship and its tradition, or employ the needle as a tool in progressive experiments …
Stitches and Threads is an exhibition of works by contemporary Icelandic artists who embroider or make use of the needle and thread as a tool in their art. They either look to the past to work with the heritage of the craftsmanship and its tradition, or employ the needle as a tool in progressive experiments …
ALDA is a live dance performance installation birthed from lasting collaboration between Eva Signý Berger and Katrín Gunnarsdóttir. When translated as WAVE, ALDA not only reflects on the form of movement but also refers to time and history, the old and the emerging new. The driving force behind choreographer Katrín Gunnarsdóttir's current work has been the …
Do we need to think about what the Nordic Region means? What Scandinavia means? Aligning ourselves under a shared idea can reveal more differences but also more similarities than expected. We share a lot, but not everything. We also see that these ideas are constructed - by us. Young Nordic artists exhibit works created in our ever-changing reality. Started …
Throughout his career, Kjarval created portraits, and in this extensive exhibition visitors become acquainted with them. Here, there are oil paintings of well-known people from different periods, watercolours of Italian people from 1920, a selection of ink and India ink drawings from 1928-30, red chalk images of family and close friends, and lesser-known portraits from …
Heads from Clouds – The Portraits of Jóhannes S. Kjarval Read More »
