Gray Day

Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson is one of the principal representatives in Icelandic art of the neo-expressionist movement which emerged around 1980. His works strongly evoke elements of the Baroque and Renaissance, while also exemplifying one of the leading themes of 19th-century Romantic art – the relationship between man and nature. His works are characterised by lyricism, seeking themes in saga literature and folklore, or from the immediate environment. In his art he captivates the observer, conjuring up a fantastical world in which reality and folklore, consciousness and dreams, nature and imagination, intersect. Helgi’s whimsical and absurd narrative approach is characterised by his own personal humour and boundless imagination. The multifaceted, rich narrative welcomes the observer onto a stage beyond time and space, where no boundaries exist. The arts says that he works with human solitude in his works, as witness the fact that the figures in his paintings scarcely ever touch each other, nor look into each other’s eyes, and they hardly seem aware of each other’s existence.