Artist Gallery

Born 1954 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Lives in Reykjavik, IS. Steingrímur Eyfjörd employs the techniques of painting, graphic art, and drawing, but also works with graphic design. His works often convey a strong sense of commitment with a socio-political message. Using shapes that bring to mind the speech bubbles used in comic strips, Eyfjörd comments pithily and humorously in the works displayed here on the current state of the Icelandic art scene. Subjects treated in this way include the lack of a serious market with international exposure for progressive art, and the shortcomings in art initiatives on behalf of politicians.

Education:

1971-1975: Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1978: Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1979-1980: Ateneum, Helsinki, Finland
1980-1983: Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, Holland.

Works in public places:

Den Haag Gementemuseum, Den Haag, Holland
Norsk Kulturraad,Drammen Museum of art, Drammen, Norway.
Museum of Art Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
The Nationale Museum of Art, Reykjavik, Iceland.
The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Safn, Reykjavik, Iceland.
The Icelandic Film Corporation, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Icelandair, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Kraftaverk (Miracle Design), Reykjavik, Iceland.

Jobs related to art:

Co Editor of the magazine "Svart á Hvítu" 1977-1980
Co Editor of the magazine "Teningur" 1986-1989
Co founder of the Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik, Iceland 1977-1981
Symposium on aesthetics "Aesthetical Hypothesis on Man" 2003,
Snorrastofa,Reykholt,Iceland

Curatorship:

Dick Higgins.1978, Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik, Iceland.
16 days, New Media Art 1993, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Asger Jorn and the Situationists 1993, The Living Art Museum,
Reykjavik,Iceland.
Computer Art 1995, Solon Islandus, Reykjavik, Iceland.
"Hugflæði" how writers and artists get ideas 1996, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik,Iceland.

In progress 2004-2005:

Working title: Project based on Asgers Jorns Ideas on Nordic Anarcy and the Face of The north.
Working title: Chess/Duchamp.

Artist in residence:

Halles de lille, Genf Switzerland, 1983-1984.
Konstepidemie, Gothenburg, Sweden. 1989
Sveaborg, Helsinki, Finland, 2004.

Awards:

DV cultural prize for visual art, 2002.

One man show:

2004: “Wuthering heights”, 101 Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland
2004: Gallery 21, Malmö, Sweden.
2004: "After image", Gallery Kling og Bang, Reykjavik, Iceland
2003: "Poultry ways she developed and means", Gallery Hlemmur,
Reykjavik, Iceland.
2001: "Projection", OBK Gallery, Oslo, Norway.
2001: "Projection", Gerdarsafn Museum, Kopavogur, Iceland.
2000: "Altered State" The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1999: "Grýla" The Icelandic National Library, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1998: Laugavegur 22, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1998: "Drawings", ASI Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: Gallery Gulp, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "Sinners Activation" Nellys Caffe, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "Old and New Works" , Urbania, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1996: The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1996: "Jon Magnussons world" Gallery Hlust, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1995: "The Silverfishman", Gallery Deiglan, Akureyri; Iceland.
1994: "The Silverfishman", Kaffi List, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1994: "The Jorney to the Pilgrim Stefania Georgsdottir", Gallery Mokka, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1993, "Hero" Gallery II, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1993, "New Drawings", Kaffistofa SAA, Reykjavik; Iceland.
1992: "New Works" The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1987: "Siegfired and more", Gallery Svart a Hvitu, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1986: "1001 word", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1984: "New paintings and drawings", Espace Un, Genf, Switzerland
1983: "Travel Paintings", HCAK Gallery, den Haag, Holland.
1983: "The river of death", Gallery behind a bookshelf, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1983: "Drawings" Gallery A, Amsterdam, Holland.
1982: "The Artist choice", Den Haag Gementemuseum, den Haag, Holland.
1979: "Consumption", University of Essex, England
1978: "Drawings", Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1977: "Drawings and painting", Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Group Shows:

2004: "Isj/Ice", Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium.
2004: "Icelandic Art", Gallery Gustave Fayet, Serignan, France.
2004: Carnegie art awards,Victoria Miro Warehouse, London,England
2004: Carnegie art awards, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway.
2004: Carnegie art awards,Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2004: Carn egie art awards, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
2004: "Scratch", Haze gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
2004: "Fluxus influences in Icelandic art", National Museum of
Art,Reykjavik, Iceland.
2003: Carnegie art awards, Konstakademien, Stockholm, Sweden.
2003: Carnegie art awards, Gerdarsafn Museum, Kopavogur, Iceland.
2003: "Icelandic Art from 1980-2000", The National Museum of Art, Reykjavik,Iceland.
2003: "Icelandic Art from 1960-1980", The National Museum of Art,
Reykjavik,Iceland.
2002: "Icelandic Art from last century", Museum of Art Akureyri,
Akureyri, Iceland.
2002: "All in the boats", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
2002: "Hvalreki", Alma Löv Museum, Sweden.
2002: "Hvalreki", Ljósafosstod, Landsvirkjun, Iceland
2001: "The Wild Bunch", Skaftfell, Seydisfjordur, Iceland.
2000: "Strandlengjan", Myndhoggvarafelagid, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1999: Kultur Bahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf, Germany
1999: "Pictures at an Exhibition", Egilsstadir, Iceland.
1999: "This is what I want to see" art chosen by the film director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson,Gerduberg, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1999: "Icelandic Comix", The Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1998 "Vacation", a collaborative installation with Margret Blöndal and Gudaugur Kristinn Ottarsson, Gallery Sævar Karl, Reykjavík, Iceland
1998 "Station to Station" The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
1998: "Documnts", Hotel Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland.
1998: "Exhibition for everything" memorial exhibiton for Dieter Roth, Skaftfell, Seydisfjordur, Iceland.
1998: "Flogd og Fögur skinn", Reykjavik Art Festival, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1998: Studeo Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.
1998: "New Works", Icelandic Museum of Art, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1998: "Living Artists dead objects" performance with Jon Sæmundur, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "Art 97", Hafnarhusid, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "The sheep song", ASI Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "The teenager in the forest", Gallery Nema Hvad, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1997: "Roundabout", Shed im Eisenwerk, Frauenfeld,Switzerland.
1997: "ON Iceland", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "20 years from Gallery Sudurgata 7", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "Icelandic contemporary art", Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1997: "Porceline plates", Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjordur, Iceland.
1997: "Kompudagar", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1996: "New Works", Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1996: "The end show", Gallery Greip, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1996: "New Works", Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjordur; Iceland.
1996: "Blood of Christ", Gallery i8, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1995: "Comix in art", Hamarinn, Hafnarfjordur, Iceland.
1995: "Icelandic contemporary art", Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1995: "Nordic wells", The Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1995: "Comix in art", Gallery Greip, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1995: "anniversary exhibition of Nylo", The Living Art Museum,
Reykjavik, Icelaqnd.
1994: "Salon 1994", Gallery Greip, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1994: "Salon 1994", Deiglan, Akureyri, Iceland.
1994: "Sculpture/Sculpture", Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1993: "Asger Jorn and the Situationists", with Roberto Orth, Haraldur
Jonsson,Steingrimur Eyfjord and Didrik Didriksen, The Living art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1993: "16 days", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1993: "With Spessi", Slunkariki, Isafjordur, Iceland.
1992: "With Spessi", Kaffi splitt, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1992: "From The Collection of Nylo", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1992: "Sculpture in the Park", Tragardsforeningen, Gothenburg, Sweden.
1991: "In a memory of Ragnar i Smara", ASI Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1989: "Fyrir ofan gard og nedan", Reykjavik Art Festival, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1988: "Symposium about Art and Sience", Vardo, Norway.
1988: "Portraits", Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1987: "KEX", Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden.
1986: "Group Show", The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1986: "N´Art", Borgarskali, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1985: "Gebirge", Gallery Filiale, Basel, Switzerland.
1984: "The Love Animale", Malmökonathall, Malmö, Sweden.
1983: "Group Show", Kjarvalsstadir, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1983: "Iceland", Museum Fodor, Amsterdam, Holland.
1982: "Plus Est Er is Meer", Bonnefante Museum, Maastricht, Holland.
1982: "12éme Bienale de Paris", Musé D´art Moderne, Paris, France.
1981: "Group Show", Statdschoburg, Holland.
1981: "Sudurgata 7 group", Gallery Akumulatory, Poznan, Poland.
1981: "Video Maart", Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, Holland.
1981: "Sudurgata 7 group", Bergens Kunstforeningen, Bergen, Norway.
1980: "Gallery Sudurgata 7 group", Kanal2/Gallery 38, Cobenhagen,
Denmark.
1980: "Sudurgata 7 group", Reykjavik Art Festival, Gallery Sudurgata 7,
Reykjavik, Iceland.
1980: "Sudurgata 7 group", Taidegrafikkoti Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.
1980: "Sudurgata 7 group", New York Art Expo, New York, USA.
1980: "Sudurgata 7 group", Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1979: "Mail Art", U. Carrion, Amsterdam, Holland.
1979: "New Art", kunstlerhaus, Stuttgard, Germany.
1979: "Gallery Sudurgata 7 group", Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1978: "Gallery Sudurgata 7 group", Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1977: "Gallery Sudurgata 7 group", Gallery Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik,
Iceland.
1977: Gallery Solon Islandus, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1976: "Group show", Gallery SUM, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1975: "FIM", The Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland.

About the exhibition “of nam hjá fiðurfé og van”

What has always intrigued me in Steingrímur Eyförð´s art is his persistent interest in socio-psychological questions of folkloric and Popular character. Well known cases of feral children - children fostered by beasts - such as that of Victor from Aveyron, by the end of the 18th century, who François Truffaut celebrated in his unforgettable “l´Enfant sauvage", and Kaspar Hauser from Nuremberg, who was immortalized by Werner Herzog in the equally penetrating masterpiece are a perfect introduction to the strange realm of bestial anthropology.

But instead of such famous cases Steingrímur Eyfjörð draws on more curious examples of the phenomenon, where children are brought up by birds, or in henhouses. From birth the Portuguese Isabel Quaresma lived for ten years in a chicken coop where she survived off breadcrumbs thrown to the chicken. Her mother was a mentally handicapped rural worker. When, in 1980, she was not saved by a hospital worker and brought to a Lisbon clinic she could not walk, nor was she used to living under a proper roof. She ate with her hands, gestured, and made sounds like a chicken. Presumably owing to malnutrition she had a tiny head on a severely stunted body and a cataract blinkered one eye.

There are numerous accounts of feral children in Icelandic folk tales, especially connected to animals, which people believed to be humanoids or spellbound humans, such as polar bears and seals. But there are also numerous accounts of children substituted by fairies and males transformed into giants by ogresses inhabiting the Icelandic wilderness. In all such legends there are socio-psychological implications to be found which wait to be deciphered.

Steingrímur Eyfjörð is among the very few artists to dare attack these popular accounts and legends, so deeply rooted in our collective conscious, and turn them into a contemporary poetry of latent psychological signification.

Halldór Björn Runólfsson.

Wuthering heights

The inspiration to „Fýkur yfir hæðir”(Wuthering Heights) was a sketch by Ásgrímur Jónsson; how did that come about?
-Recently I have been studying Ásgrímur and his work and I came across a sketch from 1905 that he called “Fýkur yfir hæðir”(Wuthering Heights), that refers to the poem of Jónas Hallgrímsson “Móðurást” (Mother love). A classic theme appears in that poem, a deceased mother and a child that is unaware of her death. I have made several attempts to tackle this classic motive and I have been thinking about it now and again for two years. Ásgrímur´s interpretation of the Icelandic spirit was very special, and is reflected in the sketch. Ásmundur Ásmundsson then came in to the process when I started working on the idea with the mother. I found a cone of his, which was a prototype of a dead volcano and got his permission to use it. We then collaborated on the making of the dead mother and the seven art therapeutic drawings that are instinctive paintings of her.

What are “Sixteen Pawns“?
-The piece consists of sixteen sculptures, descriptions of them from friends and acquaintances, signets or stamps that I used to define the look of the sculptures and also of silhouettes of the signets. The silhouettes, actually symbolize glorification, are half religious, like a letter or a symbol. There is some kind of “heaven and earth”-concept in the piece. The pawns themselves are male gender, the signets are feminine and then you can say that the interpreters and the viewers become their parents – just like in „Wuthering Heights“ where the spectator is driven to take the child in to it’s care. The silhouettes are therefore divine.

What castling’s took place before the pawns arrived in to the world?
- The inspiration to „Sixteen Pawns“ was the piece „Wuthering Heights“. Many people participated in the work and have their share in it. To begin with, I work with the surroundings and the people in it. The environment is the residence of the Sculptor Association. It is like a virus that needs a host cell to be able to breed and live. The work method therefore was up to coincidences after the pawns were created. Standing still, they waited to be moved?

-Completely unconsciously. In the work process, you don’t really know what you are doing. The beginning is an unsettled piece of land that someone needs to take, study it, give names to things, and create. The Old Testament comes to my mind, where man gives names to things. I also think that the title of a book of poetry by Sigurður Pálsson “Ljóð námu land” (Poems settled a Country) refers to the settlement of the language. The country first existed when the settlers came here and started to name things. It didn’t exist before that. The country in the piece is ranks of 16 small sculptures. The settlers are 16 guests, friends and acquaintances that happened to pass by and expressed a certain feeling that arose because of a certain pawn. I then took the description, changed it slightly, misshaped or took it in to parts and gave each pawn appropriate name in accordance to that feeling. The piece is created with the name giving. The piece actually, didn’t get a name until it was in the gallery, but the name is a matter of opinion.

Why?
-Exactly because the piece has been given a name, it has been baptised but I am sure that the viewers will give it name they believe is appropriate. The creative process continues, cf. the interview with Margrét Blöndal in „Filling the Holes“. When the same object or similar things get different names, it is natural to draw the conclusion that the piece is open to new interpretation: the viewers´ settlement – the existence of a pure artwork, is based on that.

What is the story behind „Filling the Holes“?
-I made this piece for the “Painters Biennale” in Stockholm last year; two prophecies concerning my life, meet in that work. In terms of a form, it is a painting as in the actual meaning of the word, like a portrait, a still life painting, icon ectr. The text can be looked at as a certain form, regardless to what it possible means as a part of the painting. It can also be read, peered at, dissected. The typed surface is an interpretation of the piece in a form of a dialogue between me and Margrét Blöndal, a form of interpretation I encourage people to get familiar with, but the surface is at the same time an addition, a part of a bigger context, bigger surface; a tradition. In the conversation with Magga, is both an experiment on interpretation of the form and the text as such – in that way it is a stimulation, an ideal motivation to originate a flow of thoughts about the piece, but at the same time it is a part of the piece, regardless of how it is being looked at.

Is the content of the prophecies autobiographical?
-I believe all prophecies are general: even though they are connected to a certain person I think most people can relate themselves to them. They always go in to general fields and derive from a poetic insight of the prophet himself, but his art entails among other things, to be able to read people, to peer in to the human nature, the self and the society. The prophecies could also be ideas to stories.

This platform isn’t all what it seems?
-The inspiration came from a party game where an unsuspicious partygoer, steps up on a door, blindfolded. The door is then lifted up about 5 cm high while one of the guests holds the hand of the person that stands on the door but at the same time, bends down so the person on top of the door gets the feeling of being about one meter above the ground. In the background are also psychoanalysts experiments with saltwater tanks back in the seventies as can be seen in the Film “Altered State” as well as things to do with witchcraft, butterwort and ointments – some kind of primary psychology, way of curing, science – and mysticism that are all experiments on “altered state”. If you stand on the platform with a night mask, you loose the sense of the space and hallucination in to an “altered state” follows you; you create another space.

26th of August 2004
Somewhere in 101,
Svanur Kristbergsson

BIOGRAPHY AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION
ARTWORKS