【Profile】
Helena Margrét Jónsdóttir is a visual artist based in Reykjavík, Iceland. She studied fine art at The Reykjavík School of VisHelena Margual Arts, The Royal Academy of Art in Den Haag and graduated from The Iceland University of Arts in 2019. Previous exhibitions include “What it seems” at Kjarvalsstaðir, “Social Distancing” at Plan X Art Gallery in Milano as well as Untitled Art Fair in Miami. Her upcoming solo exhibition will open in January 2021 at Hverfisgallerí in Reykjavík.
――Why/when did you start?
When I first started studying art, it was an after school program when I was 6.
But when you are a kid you don’t think being an artist isn’t really a possible job, it’s like you want to be a princess. It’s exciting but not really realistic. So I think I’m really lucky to be able to do this now. And it’s all started when my mom put me in the after school program, she also took me to ballet but it didn’t work so.
――Is that your atelier?
Yes, it’s kind of small but it’s on the 4th floor so it’s a good view. But we just had an earthquake last week and was quite big, and I had all my works here so I was so worried (laugh). But everything was ok.
――Tell us about your works, theme, and style.
I think the best description would be a digital abstract, combined with realism. I work a lot with photoshop, and I allow the sketch works to be in the finished work as well. I add images and different kinds of textures because on the screen you can’t tell the physicality, so you don’t realize the difference between flat lines and realistic images. But when you try to draw on a canvas, all of a sudden, the flat lines and the contracts become visible because you can see the materials. On the screen, you are so used to looking at all kinds of different gaps and contracts but they are all on the same screen.
So when you draw it on canvas, it creates nice contracts because you can feel the digital drawings and details of oil painting. If you use photoshop, it can be done maybe in a day, but with oil painting, it takes like two weeks at least, so I think that’s a fun part as well.
Theme-wise, a lot of my paintings are about wanting something and longing.
I have this painting that an arm is trying to reach and grab something and it’s really basic things like chips or a glass of wine. Everyone can recognize that this person is trying to reach this but failing in his or her own way.
――What’s the shoe painting behind you?
It’s a Nike shoe. There’s a ghost sock and the shoe is also see-through, and there is wine spilling and it’s gonna match with the painting behind me. If you can see, the ghost is holding a wine glass, and it’s spilling, and there’s a human hand that goes through the ghost trying to steal the wine. It represents a lack of physicality on digital. All the things you do on the screen have no physical representations which are also kind of like a ghost, mysterious and untouchable.
I work a lot with Nike shoes because I think Nike shoe kind of represent basic longing as well. Everybody kind of wants brand new Nike shoes straight out of the box. Yea so I’m working with lots of basic things like candy, chocolates.
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