Arngunnur Ýr
Eyrarrósin / Arctic river beauty

Arctic River Beauty

 

Arngunnur Ýr shows her new works in Portfolio Gallery in June 2023, where she works with the Icelandic flower, Arctic River beauty, in a new and exotic environment. In her works, which are oil paintings on birch made in 2023, this flower has found a place among plants that can be found far outside the country, but Arngunnur Ýr has lived partly in California for years. She will be staying partly in Hawai'i, and in her new works you can find a conversation with this new place, which she intends to make her home for a few months every year. When the nation was invited to vote for the national flower at the time, Arngunnur Ýr voted for the Arctic River Beauty, both in terms of its beauty and perseverance. This flower grows and thrives in the most barren and unlikely places, but will now embark on a long journey and experience new cultures and adventures in the embrace of tropical flora. With these new works, Arngunnur Ýr is examining the idea that wherever she goes and wherever she stays for a longer or shorter time, she is always first and foremost an Icelander.

 

Arngunnur Ýr has for years held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Iceland and abroad. She has a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MFA from Mills College, CA, and also studied at the Icelandic School of Art and Crafts and an MFA program at the Gerrit Rietveldt Academie in Amsterdam. Arngunn's work can be found in the collections of most art museums in Iceland, together with art museums abroad, EFTA, OECD, Microsoft Art Collection, Nike Art Collection, etc. She has, among other things, received a Pollock Krasner grant, and an artist stipend this year for the preparation of her exhibition at Portfolio galleri. There are many big exhibitions coming up in the coming year, and Arngunnur works hard on her art in her studio in the natural paradise of Hafnarfjörður.