In Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjörður’s art museum, the exhibition In the depths of your own consciousness is now a retrospective of the works of Gunnar Arnar Gunnarsson (1946-2008), curated by Aldís Arnardóttir. Gunnar Örn, a self-taught artist, enters the art scene like a storm with his first exhibition at Ragnar Smára’s Unuhús in 1970. During his long career as an artist, he constantly explored and changed his subjects. He was extremely productive in his career and primarily painted, but also made sculptures, monoprints, drawings, photographs and everything in between. In the beginning, the female body in all its glory was on Gunnar Erni’s mind on canvas, later he was more drawn to the art heritage, and subjects like snakes and men opened up new paths for Gunnar Ernir from the 1980s in a wave of a new painting style. Gunnar Arnar’s work attracts attention, far beyond just Iceland, i.a. the Guggenheim Museum in New York bought the work Stóri draumurinn in 1986. That same year, Gunnar Örn moved east to Rangaárvallarsýsla and his work in recent years moves closer to nature, man and nature and the occasional worm merge into one. Gunnar Örn represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale in 1988, he died far before his age twenty years later.
Hafnarborg in the heart of Hafnarfjörður
Hafnarfjörður 12/08/2022 : A7C, RX1R II : FE 1.4/24mm GM, 2.0/35 Z
Ljósmyndir & texti : Páll Stefánsson
