HELGI THORGILS FRIDJÓNSSON

(IS)

Artist profile

Helgi Thorgils Frijónsson is an artist who both embraces and questions Icelandic identity, ‘being nationalistic is not my interest, but bringing up national questions provokes something about existence”. His paintings re-interpret and reclaim ideas about nature and myth. Animals, fishes and birds are just as likely as humans to be the protagonists in his visual scenarios. He posits a democratisation of nature and suggests we need to think in anti-hierarchical terms – man being nothing more than a biological form among other biological forms. A recurring motif is mirroring and duality, drawing attention to the things that unify humans and animals: the symmetry of the human body, the symmetry of the non-human body and the importance of eyes.

Helgi Thorgils Frijónsson has since 2012 exhibited through Stalke Galleri.