Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2023, Síða 18

18 The Reykjavík
Grapevine 2/23
Best before:
March 2, 2023
Art Exhibitions
Gallery openings, happenings, showings and pop-up
exhibitions all around the capital region.
OPENING
Ásmundarsafn
Ásmundur Sveinsson and Sigga
Björg: Breath on a Window
With a focus on legends, fairy tales
and imagination, Sigga Björg’s
drawings, installations, videos and
books create a unique visual world
where fantasy, humour and horror go
hand in hand. At this exhibition, she
works, among other things, on a new
series based on Icelandic folk tales.
⮕ Opens February 3rd
Runs until May 7th
Ásmundur Sveinsson and Carl
Milles
The exhibition features the works of
sculptors Ásmund Sveinsson (1893-
1982) and Carl Milles (1875-1955)
from Sweden and is part of the
collaboration between Millesgården
Museum and Ásmundarsafn. Carl
Milles is one of Sweden’s most
respected sculptors and, like his
one-time mentee Ásmundur, he
donated his house, studio and work
to the public after his death.
⮕ Opens February 18th
Runs until May 21st
Gallerí Göng
No Set Course - Sigrún Halla
The exhibition consists of abstract
watercolours from the past year,
which often carry references to the
environment and surroundings. The
dissolution of material into colours
and lines that scatter around the
picture surface stands as a sign of
the creativity that can be born in lack
of direction.
⮕ Opens February 4th
Runs until February 27th
Gallery Grásteinn
Álfheiður Ólafsdóttir - Fegurð
álfheima
Álfheiður Ólafsdóttir opens an
exhibition of oil paintings as part of
the Reykjavík Winter Festival 2023.
The exhibition gives an insight into
the mysterious world of fairies, which
is characterised by softness, beauty
and joy, as if the creative process
itself were a fairy tale.
⮕ Opens February 3rd
Runs until February 28th
Hafnarhús
D-47 Logi Leó Gunnarsson
Logi Leó works with sound,
sculpture and video in unexpected
compositions and installations that
often take over the exhibition space.
By activating everyday materials in
combination with music, recordings
and sound equipment, he enables
the audience to look at and listen to
familiar things in a new way.
⮕ Opens February 16th
Runs until May 7th
Höggmyndagarðurinn
The Struggle Is Real — Curver
Thoroddsen
This work is a “real-life-
performance” filmed on 16mm film
in Russia. Curver had been asked by
Ragnar Kjartansson to do a naked-
crawl-performance at a big group
exhibition tied to his Santa Barbara
show in Moscow shortly before the
start of the Ukrainian war. No one
thought that war was imminent, but
in retrospect the signs were there.
⮕ Screenings on Feb 3rd & 4th
Museum of Design and Applied Arts
At Home in the Design Museum
The exhibition is displayed as a
blueprint of a home where different
objects from different eras come
together side by side as they would
in a home. Furniture, tableware,
books and textiles from different
eras are displayed, exemplifying a
fraction of what Icelandic designers
and artisans have been creating.
The home is in constant flux. Things
are moved, thrown or given away.
Change is constant.
⮕ Opens February 3rd
Runs until 2026
National Gallery of Iceland
Forty Years of The Corridor
The Corridor is an artist-run
exhibition space founded by
artist Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson
in 1979. It is probably Iceland’s
longest-running privately-operated
gallery. The Corridor has always
been housed in Helgi Þorgils‘ own
home; the gallery‘s first exhibition,
of For the Time Being by Hreinn
Friðfinnsson early in 1980, was held
at Laufásvegur 79.
⮕ Opens February 3rd
Runs until June 4th
Nordic House
HOW DID I GET TO THE
BOMBSHELTER
How did I get to the bomb shelter is
a multidisciplinary group exhibition
featuring seven contemporary
Ukrainian artists. Curated by Yulia
Sapiha and produced by The Nordic
House, the exhibition explores
themes related to the artists’
personal experience of the war, their
longing for a peaceful life, their paths
towards survival and their hope for
the future.
⮕ Opens February 4th
Runs until May 14th
Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum
The Gift of Children
Sigurjón Ólafsson's reliefs and
portraits of the family members of
Westman Islands fisheries magnate
Einar Sigurðs son. In a booklet
accompanying the ex hibit ion,
art hist or ian Aðal steinn Ingólfs-
son discus ses the por traits in the
con text of Sigurjón’s other works,
emphasising the re sponsi bility
that Einar Sigurðs son felt to wards
struggl ing artists.
⮕ Opens February 3rd
⮕ Runs until Autumn 2023
From Various Sources
Some of Sigurjón Ólafsson's key
works from the period 1938 to 1982
made of di fferent materi als, such as
plaster, bronze, marble and wood.
The title of the ex hibit ion refers to
both the var iety of the works and
their owner ship.
⮕ Opens February 3rd
Runs until Autumn 2023
SÍM Gallery
Til-efni: Ingibjörg Gunnlaugsdóttir
Jóhanna Björk paints with oil on
canvas, with reference to natural
forces, environment and landscape.
She fascinates with a free flow and
each picture is a journey to an exotic
destination, although often a specific
idea of the subject matter or colours
has been proposed.
⮕ Opens February 4th
Runs until February 19th
ONGOING
Ásmundarsalur
Delayed at Triste: Gunnar Jónsson
& Sigurður Ámundason
Photography and drawings.
⮕ Runs until February 12th
Inverse: Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir
& Mikael Lind
Video- and sound installation.
⮕ Runs until February 19th
Ásmundarsafn
Unndór Egill Jónsson and
Ásmundur Sveinsson: After the
Blizzard
Sculpture.
⮕ Runs until February 22nd
BERG Contemporary
Sigurður Guðjónsson - Perpetual
Motion
Installation experimenting with
lenses, light, and motion.
⮕ Runs until February 19th
Kristján Steingrímur - From Near
and Afar
Paintings.
⮕ Runs until February 25th
Einar Jónsson Museum
Eurovision Contenders
Announced
The 10 songs competing to rep
Iceland at the 67th Eurovision
Song Contest in Liverpool have
been announced by national
broadcaster RÚV. The tunes
will go head-to-head in two
semi-finals in February, with
the deciding vote scheduled for
March 4th. According to Söng-
vakeppnin rules, all songs have
to be submitted in Icelandic,
even though many contenders
chose to submit two version so
they can target the interna-
tional audience with an English
version. The 2023 submissions
range from rock-inspired tunes
to dance songs, performed by
BRAGI, MÓA, Benedikt, Celebs,
Diljá, Kristín Sesselja, Langi Seli
and the Shadows, Silja Rós &
Kjalar, Úlfar, and Sigga Ózk. IZ
Ólöf Arnalds Is
Crowdfunding A New
Album
Icelandic composer and multi-
instrumentalist Ólöf Arnalds
has launched a crowdfunding
campaign to raise the €23,000
needed to release some new
music — her fifth studio album,
titled ‘Tár í morgunsárið’. Possi-
ble donations start at €15 (2.250
ISK), but if you pledge €400,
Ólöf will cover a song of your
choice, and those who donate
over €1,000 will be invited to a
private concert held in one of the
most intimate music venues in
Reykjavík — Mengi. She’s 48% of
the way to her goal. Lend your
support through karolinafund.
com. IZ
Iceland To Get A New
Music Export Office
The government has announced
that ÚTÓN, the Iceland Music
Export Office, is being recon-
figured (ahem, closed entirely
in its current iteration) this
spring. Over the years, ÚTÓN
has been charged with promot-
ing and creating opportunities
for Icelandic musicians both
at home and abroad, facilitat-
ing funding and networking
opportunities, organising
events and spreading the word
about new music releases. The
exact makeup of the organisa-
tion that will succeed ÚTÓN is
fuzzy at this point, but it is clear
that having such an entity is
crucial for the music industry,
particularly for emerging artists.
The consequences of the absence
of the export office, in the long
term, could lead to decreased
opportunities for the Icelandic
artists. IZ
February 3 to March 2
The Visitors - Ragnar Kjartansson
February 4 to August 13 – Akureyri
Art Museum – 2.000 ISK
Named as the best artwork of the
21st century by The Guardian and
displayed all around the world,
Ragnar Kjartansson’s exhibition
The Visitors is finally coming up
north. The Visitors is a 64-minute
nine channel video installation
that pays tribute to friendship
with a hint of romantic sadness.
A farm in Upstate New York, a
bohemian musician gang and
exceptional music — The Visitors
has it all. IZ
Tracing Fragments
February 3 to May 21 – Gerðasafn –
General Admission 1.000 ISK
It’s no small task, trying to make
sense of oneself, one's person-
hood, one's culture, out of a
tangled web of generational and
cultural trauma. Through physi-
cal acts of art the six artists in
this exhibition grapple with the
complexities of heritage and iden-
tity and achieve a deeply intimate
catharsis. Confronting histories
of slavery, colonialism, racism,
religious persecution, queerness
and more, with both tenderness
and criticism, this show is one to
enter into with a heart ready to
be filled with grief, love, beauty,
sorrow and power. RX
Landvörður - Jessica Auer
Runs until April 2 – Sláturhúsið –
Free
It is a particular identity to be an
immigrant, to both be at home
and a visitor. Canadian-born artist
Jessica Auer, who has lived in
Iceland for many years, embraces
this identity through documenta-
tion of her travels throughout the
country, the people who take on
stewardship of the land and the
connection between ourselves and
the lands we live, travel and exist
in. The resulting photography
perfectly conveys the ouroboros
of simplicity-to-grandeur that
Iceland can be. Jessica concur-
rently has an installation at
Skaftfell Bistró in Seyðisfjörður,
which is well worth the hop over
the heath. RX
Delayed At Triste - Gunnar Jónsson
and Sigurður Ámundason
Runs until February 12 —
Ásmundarsalur — Free
It’s the plot of a film that ended
up being the catalyst for an art
exhibition. Gunnar and Sigurður
found themselves waylaid by a
storm while traversing the Icelan-
dic highlands. In the shelter of a
cabin they were fortunate enough
to happen upon, they found
their imaginations piqued by the
surrounding landscapes and this
exhibition was born, marry-
ing Gunnar’s photography and
Sigurður’s illustrations. As the
storm beat at the cabin, the duo
created art. Go see it. CF
CULTURE