Hallgrímur Helgason in retrospective exhibition in 2024

At the opening of the retrospective exhibition Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir: 0° 0° Núlleyja on Saturday, November 18, it was announced that the next artist to participate in a retrospective exhibition in 2024 at Kjarvalsstaðir will be Hallgrímur Helgason.

Hallgrímur is the eighth artist chosen to participate in the Reykjavík Art Museum's series of exhibitions at Kjarvalsstaður, where the careers of key figures in Icelandic art are reviewed. Each one of them is selected for their unique contribution and specialization in their field in terms of media, methods and subjects. At the exhibition, key works from different periods of the artist's career will be presented in  Kjarvalsstaðir and an exhibition catalog will be published where the career is discussed in the context of art history and contemporary times.

Hallgrímur Helgason was born in Reykjavík in 1959. He studied  at MHÍ and the Academy of Arts in Munich and has worked and exhibited as a visual artist since 1983. He has held over 30 solo exhibitions at home and abroad and participated in over 40 group exhibitions in many countries. In 1985-89 he lived in Boston and New York and in  1990-96 he lived in Paris. Paintings and drawings have always been his medium, and over a long period of time he has developed his personal style, which has always been figurative, but wandered between realism and fantasy. For two decades, he worked extensively with his sidekick, the cartoon character Grim. His works are among others owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, FRAC Poitou-Charentes in Angouleme, France, Reykjavík Art Museum, Iceland Art Museum, University Art Museum, Kópavogur Art Museum and Ísafjörður Art Museum. In 2021, Hallgrímur was awarded the French Order of Merit for cultural work, Officier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres. In the coming year, 2024, Hallgrímur will show his work at Nordatlantens brygge in Copenhagen, Nordatlantisk Hus  and in Kompan in Siglufjörður, before Reykjavík Art Museum's mid-career retrospective will open at Kjarvalsstaðir in autumn 2024.

Photo: © Marco Giugliarelli for Civitella Ranieri Foundation, 2019