Hannesarholt
Hlynur Helgason – Vernissage
November 23rd – December 12th 2023
Hlynur Helgason opens his art exhibition in Hannesarholt on Thursday, 23 November, at 3 p.m. In his second exhibition in Hannesarholt, he exhibits new pictures from this year, all done on watercolour paper in size 57 x 57 cm. The images are of two kinds. On the one hand, there are watercolours where the colours are worked systematically; on the other hand, abstract photographic works using the cyanotype method.
The watercolours are processed systematically. Each image has 16 stripes. Each stripe’s position, colour, width, and direction are determined based on the decimal digits of the number pi. The result is images with an abstract look. Their uniqueness is based on the mixing of multi-layered colours, which enhances the nature of watercolour as a medium.
The photographic works are a series of images, the subject of which is the print shop of the Icelandic Printmakers Association in Hafnarhúsið, Reykjavík. In the pictures, the nuances and details of the print shop are framed and enlarged, creating abstract imagery. The pictures utilise the cyanotype process, a photographic method from 1842. The images, made on watercolour paper, are initially bright blue. They are then bleached and tinted with red pine bark, which gives the dark tones a metallic feel and the light colours a rusty style that goes well with the subject matter.Hlynur Helgason is an established artistin Iceland. He graduated from the painting department of the College of Art and Crafts in Reykjavík in 1986, an MA degree in art from Goldsmiths’ College in London in 1994 and a PhD in the philosophy of media art from the European Graduate School in 2011. Hlynur works in both painting and photography. For the last two decades, he has researched how painting as a medium functions in a material sense, which is evident in his paintings. He also makes photographs based on nineteenth-century methods that deal with a systematic interpretation of reality in compelling images. In addition to his artwork, Hlynur is also an associate professor in art theory and history at the University of Iceland’s Faculty of Humanities.
The exhibition is a sales exhibition and lasts until December 12. The show is open during Hannesarholt’s opening hours, every day from 11:30 am – 4:00 pm, except Sundays and Mondays.
