Exhibitions

In his colourful paintings, Icelandic artist Tolli
(Þorlákur Morthens) has for four decades had
movement in every sense as a main subject
of his paintings, not least the ways movement
and transformation occurs in nature, in Earth’s
colourful hues but also in the colours of our own
inner nature and the subtle vibrations that occur
in the body, creating various frequencies of
colours and sound, which correspond with the
frequencies of our natural environment.
Tolli’s art is based in the expressive New Painting
of the early 1980s and is still partly influenced by
its rawness and fast abstract painting on large
canvases, in which the movement of the artist
during the creation plays a role in amplifying
the energy that eminates from the painting.
One thread in Tolli’s art is landscape, which

he paints based on his own experiencesof in-
spiration from hiking and dwelling in mountainous

environments in his home country. In the
exhibition, two sites in Iceland are the subject
of many of the works; the majestic mountain
Lómagnúpur and the wilderness at Fjallabak in
the highlands. Both sites attract hikers due to the
feeling of freedom of the vastness and stunning
colour and they have been a source of inspiration
for many other artists and poets in the past. At
the top of Lómagnúpur one can, on a good day,
have a view to Öræfajökull glacier and sometimes
over Vatnajökull glacier. And the immenseness
of Fjallabak fills the traveler’s lungs with crisp
mountain air. On a distant horizon, heaven and
earth meet.
Here we are in a sense invited on an inner journey.
We observe the steepness that our own path of
life is constructed for each of us to grapple with.
We visualize the steep peak as an ever-changing
shape and admire the colorful expansiveness

that the struggle brings, the chaos and re-
fractions that the eye perceives in different

ways depending on the angle of view. We are
reminded that the connections between sensory
impressions, such as the experience of smell,
sound, weather, colours and shapes, which the
senses perceive in untamed nature, are of an
aesthetic nature. They reflect our individual

experience, qualities such as attentiveness,
curiosity and imagination, which change and
become stronger the more mature we become.
The works in the exhibition are all new or very
recent. The landscape-based works share a
connection with the more abstract works in that
they radiate colours and energy from the large
brushstrokes and a flow of light. The chaos of the
natural experience transforms into an atmosphere
of formlessness, beyond words and specific
locations.
Tolli’s works can be characterised by a flow
of colour. They are sort of a colour-bath, a
powerful waterfall of colours that we are invited
to step under and into. This waterfall of colour is
immersive, it embraces us and in it our physical
being is infused by spiritual potency. Stepping
out of this waterfall, the colours continue to have
an effect, they are healing. Colours have had a
significant and ontological effect on the human
spirit throughout the ages and their effects, as
basically created through refractions of light
in nature, perceived through the retina, have
profound physiological effect on us. Harnessing

such refractions with paint on a movable, two-
dimensional surface indoors is an enchantment

of the ages. The perspective and the experience
continues to be our own.
The paintings eminate light. The clarity of the
colours and their contrasts play tricks on the eye.
We breathe in colours, and we exhale a flow of joy.

Exhibitions

Didier Goupy

Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir

Group show

Björk Viggósdóttir

Auður Lóa Guðnadóttir

Hayden Dunham

Kristín Morthens & Scott Everingham

Trú Blue

Davíð Örn Halldórsson

Guðmundur Thoroddsen

Lilja Birgisdóttir + Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir

Ár•farvegur // Stream•bed

Áslaug Íris Katrín Friðjónsdóttir

María Gudjohnsen

Auður Ómarsdóttir

Tolli

Sunneva Ása Weisshappel

Kristín Morthens

Kristinn E. Hrafnsson

Þorvaldur Jónsson

Daníel Magnússon

Anna Maggý

Guðmundur Thoroddsen

Auður Lóa Guðnadóttir

Rakel McMahon

Melanie Ubaldo

Fritz Hendrik IV

Björg Örvar

Edda Jónsdóttir

Elli Egilsson

Lukas Bury

Jeanine Cohen

Lilja Birgisdóttir

Krot & Krass

Áslaug Íris Katrín Friðjónsdóttir

Snowland Art

Hrafnkell Sigurðsson

Lilý Erla Adamsdóttir

Sindri "Sparkle" Freyr

Perry Roberts

Rakel McMahon

Hulda Vilhjálmsdóttr

Hildur Bjarnadóttir

Sigurður Ámundason

Anna Maggý

Helga Páley Friðþjófsdóttir

Claudia Hausfeld

Kristín Morthens

Sunneva Ása Weisshappel

Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir

Kristinn E. Hrafnsson

Tolli

Dýrfinna Benita Basalan

Aðalheiður Daly Þórhallsdóttir

Þórdís Erla Zoega

Davíð Örn Halldórsson

Hugleikur Dagsson

Guðmundur Thoroddsen

Daníel Magnússon

Loji Höskuldsson

Harpa Árnadóttir

Matthías Rúnar Sigurðsson & Sigurður Ámundason

Sigurður Árni Sigurðsson

The Icelandic Love Corporation

Sigtryggur Bjarni Baldvinsson

Georg Guðni

Therese Himmer

Hrafnkell Sigurðsson

Gabríela Friðriksdóttir

Kristinn E. Hrafnsson

Samsýning

Guðmundur Thoroddsen

Samsýning

Davíð Örn Halldórsson

Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir

Jeanine Cohen

Magnús Kjartansson

Hildur Bjarnadóttir

Sigtryggur Bjarni Baldvinsson