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May 6, 2008
The Alcoa Foundation sponsors Icelandic contemporary art in New York
The Alcoa Foundation and the Icelandic government are the main sponsors of a survey of contemporary Icelandic art from the National Gallery of Iceland, which opened on May 1st in Scandinavia House í New York.
The exhibition is one of the events sponsored by the Icelandic government in New York in connection with Iceland’s election campaign for a seat in the United Nations Security Council. The Alcoa Foundation is not only one of the main sponsors of the exhibition itself, its involvement is also supporting educational materials relating to the exhibition, and special programs and educational sessions on the works, thus enhancing public understanding of the culture of Iceland, the works shown, and the artists represented.
This survey of contemporary Icelandic art from the National Gallery of Iceland includes sculpture, installation, painting, photography, and videos by 21 of Iceland’s most acclaimed artists: Þórdís Aðalsteinsdóttir, Olga Bergmann, Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Margrét H. Blöndal, Ólafur Elíasson, Steingrímur Eyfjörð, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Hulda Hákon, The Icelandic Love Corporation (Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir, Jóní Jónsdóttir, and Eirún Sigurðardóttir), Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir, Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ólöf Nordal, Jón Óskar, Eggert Pétursson, Katrín Sigurðardóttir, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson, Magnús Sigurðarson, and Hulda Stefánsdóttir.
“The American-Scandinavian Foundation is enormously pleased to present this exhibition at Scandinavia House,” says Edward P. Gallagher, President of the ASF. “From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art is an outstanding addition to the Foundation’s long history of presenting contemporary Scandinavian art in this country.”
Icelandic artists are to a large extent influenced by the harsh volcanic and glacial landscape of their sparsely populated island nation. While many of the artists in the exhibition live in New York or have studied in the U.S., their work is very different than that of other New York-based artists. “Among the most apparent differences is the attitude of Icelandic artists to nature, which is the basis of their art whether it is conspicuous or not,” says Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Director of the National Gallery of Iceland and curator of the exhibition. “Modern Icelandic art is rooted in landscape, but it has little to do with the classical European tradition with its idyllic atmosphere and picturesque order.” No strangers to the international art scene, the artists in From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art draw vitality and creativity from the contrast between the sublime emptiness of the Icelandic landscape and the bustling energy of cosmopolitan cities like New York.
Of the 21 artists in From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art, Þórdís Aðalsteinsdóttir (b. 1975), Jón Óskar (b. 1954), Eggert Pétursson (b. 1956), and Hulda Stefánsdóttir (b. 1972) are exclusively painters. Aðalsteinsdóttir explores the absurdity of trivial everyday existence using a colorful figurative style of exquisite graphical irony. Óskar also practices figurative painting, playing with visible images beneath layers of semitransparent encaustic. Pétursson draws our attention to the abstract pattern of small heath plants as they appear from above. In Stefánsdóttir’s installations the slightest shift from the invisible to the perceptible is pushed to its extremity with the addition of photos and xeroxes to an array of low-key paintings.
Painting also appears indirectly in the otherwise sculptural works of Steingrímur Eyfjörð (b. 1954) and Hulda Hákon (b. 1956). Eyfjörð draws on human customs and manners in order to reveal society’s hierarchical structure in an ironic light. In collaboration with another prominent artist of the younger generation, Ásmundur Ásmundsson (b. 1971), Eyfjörð uses a romantic theme as the basis for a psycho-critical pun after a long investigation into cultural and literary sources. Gabríela Friðriksdóttir (b. 1971), Ólöf Nordal (b. 1961), and The Icelandic Love Corporation—Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir (b. 1973), Jóní Jónsdóttir (b. 1972) and Eirún Sigurðardóttir (b. 1971)—also make use of dark folklore in their installations to unveil perilous contemporary practices. Magnús Sigurðarson (b. 1966) and Hrafnkell Sigurðsson (b. 1963) are not far from them in their subjective wintry suggestions. Olga Bergmann (b. 1967) and Katrín Sigurðardóttir (b. 1967) resort to the diminutive model in order to shed light on nature as a mirror and an extension of their cultural concerns.
Textile artist Hildur Bjarnadóttir (b. 1969) undermines the reductive idea of textile art as a moribund maiden activity with her video of a cowboy twirling his rope. Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir (b. 1969) is also rooted in textile art, which she has developed into an exquisite world of drawing and cutting, often using her own older works as a second-hand palimpsest support. Margrét H. Blöndal (b. 1970) observes dilapidated or tattered second-hand materials as mature and imbued with historical relevance. Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir (b. 1969) and Ólafur Elíasson (b. 1967) grasp the phenomenological importance of ahistorical technology and the immediate excitement it produces. Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976), who will represent Iceland at the next Venice Biennale, brings together music, theatre, and the visual arts in vivid performances.
This broad presentation of contemporary Icelandic art reflects the strong initiative of the country’s small artistic community and points to some of the new ideas, trends, and movements originating on Europe’s second largest island.
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On the Alcoa Foundation
The Alcoa Foundation was established in 1952, an independent institution located in the USA. Since 2003, the foundation has supported several projects in Iceland, with a total of 270 millions ISK (3.6 million US$). In 2007, the Alcoa Foundation grants awarded in Iceland amounted to 80 millions ISK (more than 1 million US$).
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From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art
May 2 – August 15, 2008
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 12–6 pm. Admission is FREE.
Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America
58 Park Avenue (between 37th and 38th Streets)
New York, NY 10016
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