‘Two psycho ravens shy of unkindness’ by Heimir Björgúlfsson
Barbara Seiler Gallerie
Anwandstrasse 67
8004 Zürich
Opening hours Mo-Fr 14-18, Sa 10-16
More Info: http://www.barbaraseiler.ch/exhibitions.html
We are very delighted to present ‘Two psycho ravens shy of unkindness’ by Heimir
Björgúlfsson. In his second solo exhibition at Barbara Seiler he shows a new series of photo
collages and, for the first time in Switzerland, a series of new paintings.
The work of Los Angeles based artist Heimir Björgúlfsson (1975, Iceland) deals with man’s
relationship with his surroundings and nature, displacement and man’s character within
human culture. Björgúlfsson takes nature as he finds it through the lens of his camera and
creates new, often disturbing and threatening scenarios by adding various elements to
collages: a group of golden yellow, raw citrine gemstones conquering a deserted backyard
alley in the outskirts of Los Angeles or a huge pinecone hovering above a gas station in the
nowhere of the Mexican desert.
Heimir Björgúlfsson applies the same technique in his paintings, which he will present in
Switzerland for the first time. The paintings are originally collage based but evolve into
something different when they are painted. This is most visible in ‘Man believes in magic’,
a large-scale painting in different color hues of grey, brown, yellow and green. What seems
to be an abstract composition at a first glance emerges into a complex and bewildering
landscape of deserted houses and patched fences, from behind which a huge billboard with
torn, sun-bleached remains of advertisings towers. A huge ‘organ pipe’cactus debouches
from the right angle of the painting and an oversized, cut and muddy treeroot hovers over
the scenery.
In the series ‘Entrance uncovered’, which follows the earlier series ‘The Classical’,
Björgúlfsson uses classical imagery and distorts it. By creating an image within the image
he alludes to the fact that the perception of an environment can vary immensely by different
people. He is interested in the question of people’s perception of nature and their
surroundings, what is considered beautiful and to whom it is considered as such.
Besides photograph-on-photograph collages Björgúlfsson’s recent works include
photographes combined with spraypaint and larger scale almost scientific drawings of birds
in colored pencil. The diptychs are characterized by the layering of the various elements
and create a complex reference system of man made and natural objects, which visualize and
accentuate their conflict-ridden relationship. Peakholes adjourn the arrangements in
layers and open up a glimpse to a world that seems to be hidden behind the collage. The
birds, a recurring element in Björgúlfsson’s work, reflect human situations created by the
given surroundings, as well as ideological and cultural backgrounds. He chooses the form of
the diptych for the dialogue that the medium creates; between the old material and waste to
be recycled, old paint flaking or dirt walls as remains of human expansion and
intervention, versus the grown and natural environment of floating rivers and lush
wilderness.
Heimir Björgúlfsson is currently participating in the exhibition accompanying the Carnegie
Art Award 2012 (The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, 18 November, 2011 – 29 January, 2012; The Royal
Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, 16 March – 13 May, 2012; Amos Anderson Art Museum,
Helsinki, 25 May – 30 July, 2012; Sophienholm, Lyngby/Copenhagen, 28 September – 8
November, 2012). He is also part of the group exhibition ‚Utopia / Dystopia’ that opens in
March 2012 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. His work has been presented in soloand group-exhibitions in Europe and the United States, among others Reykjavík Art Museum,
Reykjavík, IS (2010) and Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, NL (2006).
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