Daði Guðbjörnsson was born in Reykjavík in 1954. He studied art at the Reykjavik School of Visual Arts between 1969-1976, the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts 1976-1980 and at the Rijksakademi van Beldende Kunsten in Amsterdam 1983-1984.
Daði has held many solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions both in Iceland and abroad. He held a large exhibition of oil works at Kjarvalsstaðir in 1993 and 2011. In 2022, a retrospective exhibition of Daði’s graphics was held at the Reykjanesbær Art Museum on the occasion of Daði donating almost all of his authorship to the art museum in graphics. The exhibition was called Daði‘s Gift and a very generous and beautiful catalogue was also published. Works by Daði are owned by the National Gallery of Iceland, the Reykjavík Art Museum and the Reykjanessbær Art Museum. In 1997, Daði first exhibited in Fold Gallery. Since then he has exhibited regularly in the Gallery and this is his eighth solo exhibition with us.
The Icelandic art history, published in 2011, discusses Daði Guðbjörnsson and his role in the so-called “New Painting”; the new painting arose across Europe among young artists as their counterpart to a long period that had been characterised by conceptual art. It says:
Many young artists approached the new painting in a direct and blunt manner, where the expression of emotions, the outlet and the joy were paramount. Daði Guðbjörnsson entered the art scene with great enthusiasm at the beginning of the 1980s. He exhibited expressionistic works influenced by the Danish Cobra painters, but improvisation, cheerfulness and decorative art had already emerged as a strong characteristic of Daði’s work. In the exhibition at Kjarvalsstaðir in 1993, he appeared as a fully formed artist. There, his professional and technical skills attracted attention, as well as his pleasant form usage and a strong sense of the nuances of the colour spectrum.
About his exhibition “Nothing disturbs the attention of the mountain”, Daði says:
When I was young, landscapes weren’t exactly fashionable, and I thought to myself; “I can paint landscapes when I’m old, when no one cares. Oil painting was actually not well regarded either when I was at the College of Arts and Crafts, it should rather be done something that looked to refer to a “deeper truth.” I never did well with this deep truth, I started painting in such a way that it worked out fine until I got bored with the existential problem and go to the cuties that were sweeter and on a more human scale.
One of my main interests is to walk around Iceland’s nature, through the grassy countryside, valleys, and beaches, and look at the mountains and glaciers. It has sparked a desire to paint landscapes, I decided now was time to try the landscape, yet also let some cuties join, so it doesn’t get too deep.
The exhibition will be on display until the 11th of February.
Art Gallery Fold on Rauðarárstígur Reykjavík is open Mon-Fri 10 – 6pm and Saturdays 12 – 4pm.
The exhibition can be viewed here.
