The exhibition Treacherous Silver Sheen meets the eye in a space that is entirely new, shadowless in the sense that nothing has happened here before. The angles of the house are still sharp but will soften and smoothe out in the fullness of time. On display are sculptures and images that either address the space directly or raise questions about time, value, imitations, mimicry, and ways of blending into one’s surroundings. A green railing vaguely recalls a community hall in Súðavík, but the memory is hard to grasp, hovering just beyond reach.

The red colour’s role is to safeguard fervour and passion.

Other works in the exhibition join in a quiet pantomime, a heap of dice, matchbooks, a stack of tissue paper. Simple units that fit together nicely. They mimic each other by turns, making it hard to tell which started the game and what is imitating what. Over time, slowly changing, the units’ characteristics blur into a continuum, or maybe a camouflage.

A grey shadow seeks to attain colour, shape, texture, and mass. Achromatic, it wafts around, high on the walls, down across the floor. Corners are ideal. But grey is not colourless, not really; colours glow in greyness.

This exhibition will always be the first stratum of the house, before sleepless nights, piles of laundry, and confirmation parties. Soon there will be cabinetry, flooring, appliances, and other necessities for making a home. There was never an exhibition here.

UNA BJÖRG MAGNÚSDÓTTIR

Una Björg plays a variety of tricks in her work to raise questions about beauty, values, and our existence, our conduct and behaviours. To this end, she uses texture and value-laden materials in a subtle but spare way. Through precise arrangements of unassuming objects, the works create a certain façade that makes everything seem forthright. Yet the works are imbued with a tacit deception; they teeter on elusive dividing lines between the real and the imitative, thereby summoning the viewer’s undivided attention.

Una Björg Magnúsdóttir (b. 1990) studied visual art at Iceland University of the Arts and pursued graduate studies at ÉCAL in Switzerland, graduating from there in 2018. Her work has been shown at the Reykjavik Art Museum, the Kópavogur Art Museum, the Y Gallery, KEIV in Athens, GES-2 in Moscow, the North Atlantic House in Copenhagen, and other venues. She is currently in residence at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS PRESENTED BY THE ASÍ ART MUSEUM

Una Björg Magnúsdóttir is the fourth artist selected to participate in the ASÍ Art Museum’s exhibition series in which the chosen artist mounts solo exhibitions in two locations in Iceland.
The ASÍ Art Museum has good accommodations for its collection but currently proceeds without a gallery of its own at its disposal. During this temporary situation, the museum has enjoyed good, gratifying collaborations with institutions, organizations, and individuals throughout Iceland, joining with them to arrange exhibitions of works both old and new.

Calls for proposals go out at regular intervals to artists who wish to work with the museum. One project is selected each time. The exhibition sites, one in the Reykjavik area and one in a different region of the country, are chosen in collaboration with the participating artists.

The sites selected for Una Björg Magnúsdóttir’s exhibition were Súðavík and Mosfellsbær. Una Björg chooses her exhibition spaces with meticulous care and allows the works in each show to spring forth as a kind of reaction to what the space conveys. The first exhibition was presented in cooperation with the Community Hall (Samkomuhúsið) in Súðavík; the second exhibition is on view in a single-family home under construction in Mosfellsbær at Kvíslartunga 28.

Alongside the exhibitions, art classes will be organized for pre- and grade-school children. Activities will include working with the museum collection’s oldest works and making short videos for the museum website.

THE EXHIBITION SPACE IN MOSFELLSBÆR

Kvíslartunga 28 is a nearly four hundred square meter single-family home under construction in Mosfellsbær. The exhibition coincides with the final stage of construction, before trim. The architect is Björgvin Snæbjörnsson of the firm APPARAT. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the owners of the house, the construction company EJ BYGG and ALLT Realty.

THE ASÍ ART MUSEUM

The ASÍ Art Museum was established in 1961. The industrialist and publisher Ragnar Jónsson of Smári laid the foundation for the museum by donating his art collection—about 147 paintings by many of Iceland’s best-known artists—to the Icelandic Federation of Labour Unions. Ragnar’s wish was to establish an art museum that would promote art among Iceland’s working people. The ASÍ Art Museum has always charted its course by its founder’s educational views and has focussed on mounting art exhibitions in workplaces and institutions across Iceland. The museum has undertaken a broad range of projects over the years and its collection has steadily grown since its founding nearly sixty years ago; it now comprises roughly 4300 works.

Listasafn ASÍ Art Museum

Sími I Tel: (+354) 868 1845
info@listasafnasi.is
@listasafn_asi_artmuseum
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