Surface of Memory – Harpa Árnadóttir

Exhibition September 24th 2022 – January 29th 2023

The Icelandic painter Harpa Árnadóttir creates wondrous images of existence and memory.

The exhibition Surface of Memory presents a selection of paintings and drawings by the Icelandic artist Harpa Árnadóttir, from the last ten years of the artist’s career. Árnadóttirs works on canvas and paper are experimental studies into surface and transparency. She is especially known for her striking “cracked paintings”, an on-going series of works since the mid 1990´s, that are composed of layers of glue and water-dissolving pigment that eventually crack, thereby creating structures on the canvas reminiscent of natural landscapes. The foundation of her work, however, is often the relationship between painting and literature, more specifically the idea that painting can be considered visual poetry.

About the artist
After completing a degree in literature at the University of Iceland, Harpa Árnadóttir (b. 1965, Iceland) turned to visual arts, where she subsequently studied at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and the Valand Academy of Art and Design in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has exhibited extensively in Iceland and abroad, where her work have been featured, amongst others, in the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (2001), and Momentum – the Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art in Moss, Norway (2011). Harpa Árnadóttir lives and works in Reykjavík and Stockholm, and is represented by Hverfisgalleri, Iceland.

Surface of memory is Harpa Árnadóttir´s first solo exhibition in Denmark.

The Exhibition is curated by H.K.Rannversson, curator and head of exhibitions at North Atlantic House, and supported by the Embassy of Iceland in Copenhagen.

A part of the exhibition can be seen in the lobby of the Iceland Embassy, Strandgade 89. Opening hours Weekdays 9-16.