“Everything means something. Nothing is without purpose.
Yellow conveys energy. A circle signifies repetition, gets your attention, is even holy in some cases. Water is change, life, feelings, currents… All of these things can be found in the pieces in this exhibition, but an artwork is not something that can be read to find the ,,right” conclusion, the right meaning. It has to be felt, experienced, and then the viewer makes his own assessment, leaves with his own impression that is his alone.”
This exhibition is a show of pieces by Icelandic artist Jónína Björg Helgadóttir. Jónína studied art in Akureyri in North-Iceland and graduated from the fine arts department in 2015. She has exhibited widely since, including shows in Denmark and Paris. This is Jónína’s 7th solo show, and her first in Canada. A special guest piece in the exhibition is by Icelandic native Reynir Saem who lives in Toronto and whose work rhymes with some of the themes in Jónína’s work. This gives a connection to the Icelandic society in Toronto, as well as drawing parallels between people who were brought up in the sparsely populated Iceland with its influential nature.
Jónína’s work is mostly oil paintings and linocuts, all figurative work, focusing on the woman and where her mind wanders. By not being overly critical of what makes it onto the canvas, she lets the subconscious mind seep out into the artwork. That allows her to interpret afterwards the meaning of shapes, colours and facial expressions, to see what her mind has been occupied with, even without her realising it. The work is often very colourful, straight forward with some humour to it. There is a lot of repetition of shapes and themes, making some things seem more important, while some things are mere glimpses of thoughts and emotions.