The Human Fabric

The Human Fabric

Reykjanes Art Museum‘s Summer Exhibition

The exhibition shows works by 21 artists, mainly paintings but also a photographic work and a sculpture. The oldest of the artists is Ásgrímur Jónsson (1876 – 1958) and the youngest is Aron Reyr (b. 1974). What the artists have in common is that they touch on human relations and how they appear, either straight forward or in a symbolic way. Their perspective can be either private, professional or social.

The exhibition is somewhat a continuation of the popular exhibition Woman‘s Lot: The Feminine Knowing from the beginning of this year. In both cases an enquiry is made into objective art in Iceland and what it is that authors of such art works are trying to tell us about their ideas and attitudes.

In this exhibition 10 women and 11 men address the way in which people interact and the situations that motivate human relations. Most of the artists seem to believe that Icelanders bond mainly through common activities, work or recreation, rather than by an urgent emotional need. Still an exhibition of this kind is not social studies; first and foremost it makes us think about the language and visibility of emotions.

Most of the works are borrowed from Iceland‘s two main museums, but in addition to that the artists themselves have lent a few works that have not been shown publicly before. The artists of the summer exhibition are Aðalheiður S. Eysteinsdóttir, Aron Reyr, Ásgeir Bjarnþórsson, Ásgrímur Jónsson, Baltasar, Barbara Árnason, Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson, Finnur Jónsson, Gunnar Karlsson, Gunnlaugur Scheving, Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Hlaðgerður íris, Jóhanna Kristín Yngvadóttir, Karen Agnete Þórarinsson, Karólína Lárusdóttur, Sara og Svanhildur Vilbergsdætur, Sigríður Melrós Ólafsdóttir, Sigurður Guðmundsson, Stefán Boulter, Tryggvi Magnússon og Þórdís Aðalsteinsdóttir. Curator is Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson.