Harpa Árnadóttir opens the solo exhibition Shadowfall – the journey to the light at Listval Gallery
The works of Harpa Árnadóttir encompass experimental research into surface and translucency, but the foundation of many of her works is the idea of viewing paintings as visual poetry. The exhibition consists of works of waterfalls, as Harpa began painting waterfalls when she was in the painting department of the Reykjavik School of Visual Arts in 1990, and that imagery has accompanied her every step since. She says; ‘Watching a waterfall is like watching eternity itself. Thousands of years upon thousands of years. These are the ebb and low within the soul. On these journeys, you travel through the inner landscape’.
Harpa Árnadóttir (b. 1965) turned to the visual arts after completing her bachelor’s degree in history and literature at The University of Iceland. She began her art education at the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts and then moved to Sweden for further studies at Konsthogskolan Valand in Gothenburg. Árnadóttir’s works have been acquired and exhibited by museums across Europe, notably featuring in the first Gothenburg Biennial and Momentum, the 6th Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art. In 1995, she won the prestigious Young Artists Drawing Competition, organized by the National Museum in Stockholm for young artists. Those drawings are now in the collection of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Her watercolor works have won the Col Art Watercolor Awards from the Nordic Watercolor Society. Her paintings have been nominated for pre-selection in the Carnegie Art Award. Her latest solo exhibition, Surface of memory, was held at the North Atlantic House in Copenhagen. Árnadóttir lives and works in Reykjavík.
