Motivational Award 2025: Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir
Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir (b.1996) is the recipient of the Motivational Award of the Icelandic Art Prize 2025. Jónsdóttir has distinguished herself among young artists with paintings of everyday objects that she places in an unconventional context.
Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir (b.1996) is the recipient of the Motivational Award of the Icelandic Art Prize 2025. Jónsdóttir has distinguished herself among young artists with paintings of everyday objects that she places in an unconventional context. Helena Margrét graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2019 after studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, the Netherlands, and the Reykjavík School of Fine Arts.
Since graduating, Helena Margrét has actively participated in the art scene in Iceland and abroad. In her solo exhibition, titled Just Like Real in D-Gallery, at the Reykjavík Art Museum in 2023, the artist captured replicas of real objects on canvas. In 2022, Helena Margrét’s solo exhibition You Can’t Get Stuck in Your Own Web in Ásmundarsalur, captured the viewer’s attention by portraying spiders of various sizes in different situations. Additionally, she has attracted deserved attention abroad, including in Milan, London and Beijing.
Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir: Frosted Petals, 2024.
Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir: Just Like Real in Reykjavík Art Museum – Hafnarhús, 2023. Photo: Vigfús Birgisson.
Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir: Preserved Bloom, 2024.
In her works, Helena Margrét employs the properties of painting to vividly imitate the everyday and imagined reality. Her subjects often include phenomena she finds in her surroundings or the digital world, juxtaposing them in an unconventional and frequently distorted way. Minor dents on a can or a spider in a lollipop capture the moment and slow down time and space. Her visual language refers to digital aesthetics where a shoe, a chip or a glass of white wine is depicted on a monochrome, dimensionless background without shadows or shades. Her work evokes the impression of what is considered appetising and pure whilst being simultaneously uncomfortable and strange.
The jury finds that Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir’s paintings are intriguing and set an interesting tone in the art scene. Her works are refined and serene, with an innovative undertone that activates the imagination and transports the viewer into a dreamlike world. Through her practice, Helena Margrét convincingly removes the veil from the traditional manifestation of everyday objects in painting.
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