The exhibition by Finnbogi Pétursson in the LÁ Art Museum in Hveragerði will be exceptional for several reasons. This well known artist has not yet had his own solo show here. However, the town and its surroundings are particularly significant to him. The connection with this place was established already in childhood – according to the artist’s memories, it was a stopover during a trip with his parents to the east of Iceland. Even then, his imagination was stimulated by the nearby geyser and boiling natural springs, as well as information about the unfortunate accidents that regularly occurred there. The fascination with this area remained alive in the artist’s adult life. Its exceptional dynamism, geothermal and seismic activity, the living presence of the primal forces of nature, were a frequent topic of discussions between the artist and the famous seismologist Ragnar Stefánsson, in private life Finnbogi’’s father-in-law, who led the development of monitoring systems and research aiming to provide advance warnings of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The artist intended to collaborate with Ragnar on the exhibition in Hveragerði to create a work using seismographs that would be inspired by the geophysical activity of the region as well as Ragnar’s own invented devices. Unfortunately, Ragnar died in July last year. The exhibition in Hveragerði and the work specially prepared for it by Finnbogi will therefore be a kind of tribute to Ragnar and his special love for Iceland and its seismic uniqueness.

Finnbogi Pétursson (born 1959) studied at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in the Netherlands. His first exhibition was held in 1980 at the Sudurgata 7 Gallery, an artist-run gallery that was a centre for avant-garde art in Iceland. Since then, he has participated in over 140 group and solo exhibitions worldwide, including the Venice Biennale in 2001, where he represented Iceland. From the beginning, he has mixed sound with visuals in his installations and has expanded his works into the realm of music and even performance art. He uses technology in quite inventive ways in his artworks, transforming, for example, sound waves into light that is projected onto the rippling surface of water, or creating kinetic sculptures that produce sound. Finnbogi’s works are in numerous private and public collections, including: the Malmö Konstmuseum (Sweden), TBA21-Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Augarten (Austria), the Michael Krichman and Carmen Cuenca collection (USA) and the National Gallery of Iceland.