GÚLÍGOGG – Jón Sigurpálsson, Pétur Kristjánsson, Örlygur Kristfinnsson

June 17 – August 28, 2022, Skaftfell Bistro

Opening on June 17 at 16:00. Everyone is welcome.

Opening times: like the bistro.

This exhibition is the final episode of the YPSILON GOGG trilogy. Preparations for this series of exhibitions began in the autumn of 2019 with philosophical speculations and a modest hint of emotional tendencies towards the friendship that the three museum veterans from the three towns of Ísafjörður, Siglufjörður and Seyðisfjörður had cultivated over the years. The first exhibition, GOGG, was staged in Ísafjörður during the summer of 2020. Second up was GÚL in Siglufjörður 2021 and in June 2022 opens the finale, GÚLÍGOGG, in Seyðisfjörður.

Curation and texts: Jón Sigurpálsson, Pétur Kristjánsson, Örlygur Kristfinnsson

 

Jón Sigurpálsson, Landscape by the sea (installation, 2022)

The horizon is an imaginary circle that separates the sky and the earth’s surface. On both sides of the imaginary circle is the rich ecosystem of all organisms and food supply, from fruit de mer to foie gras.

Jón Sigurpálsson (1954) lives and works in Ísafjörður. He studied art at the Icelandic School of Fine Arts and Crafts and the National Academy in Amsterdam. Jón has shown his work in exhibitions in Iceland and abroad for years with solo and group exhibitions. He co-founded the Gallery Slunkaríki and the Edinborg Cultural Center in his hometown and headed the Westfjords Regional Museum for over three decades.

 

Pétur Kristjánsson, Oh! I SEE/O.I.C.  (2022)

Consumers are indviduals or groups of individuals that buy stuff – consumer goods that the consumers consume, utilize, use, enjoy etc. Producers and sellers are mostly some sort of companies, factories, shops etc. keeping busy creating all the consumer stuff.  They must convince the consumers about the excellence of their products so the consumers will purchase them. All this happens on an arena called the market and that is something somehow Oh! I see. (O.I.C.)

Pétur Kristjánsson (b. 1952) studied agriculture at Hólar in Hjaltadalur and holds a BA in Ethnology from Lund University, Sweden. Among many other things he was the director of the Technical Museum of East Iceland in Seyðisfjörður from 1986-2019. As an artist Pétur is self-educated. Having worked closely with Swiss/German artist Dieter Roth from 1991 to 1998 he is a founding member and professor of the Dieter Roth Academy. Pétur has exhibited regularly in Iceland and Europe since 1991. He lives and works in Seyðisfjörður.

 

Örlygur Kristfinnsson, Watercolour series

This series of watercolours focuses on the extinction of the Great Auk. For millions of years, this species had developed as the largest of the Auks (Alcidae). For centuries the Great Auks´ eggs and meat were transported from its North Atlantic colonies to the banquet tables of Europeans. Lastly, natural history museums and private collectors were responsible for the species’ extinction on June 3, 1844, on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland – when the last remaining Great Auk on Earth was killed. Örlygur’s work addresses the fate of this creature and the conservation of our natural world.

Örlygur Kristfinnsson was born March 21st, 1949 in Siglufjörður. He studied at the Icelandic School of Art and Crafts 1969-73 and taught visual art for 20 years. In addition to exhibiting his artwork, Örlygur is a published author of several books concerning the history of Siglufjördur. In 1989, he established the Association of Museum Volunteers and was the Director of the Herring Museum of Iceland from 1996-2016. He is active in the ‘Rimur’ – rime chanting community – and also runs a studio and Söluturninn Gallery in Siglufjörður.