Ilana Halperin talks about her works.
19 July 2025 at 1:00 PM
Primer / Felt Event
Dr Catriona McAra, Lecturer in Art History at University of Aberdeen chairs a discussion between artist Ilana Halperin and Dr Claire Cousins, Reader in Earth Sciences at University of St Andrews. Spotlighting women’s contributions to planetary geology, they have recently undertaken fieldtrips to Orkney and Iceland in search of local “kin” to creatively understand the rock formations of distant Mars. Following collaborative field work in the geothermal streams above Hveragerði, they are excited to return to share their findings! For this occasion, they will also launch a limited edition etching by Ilana entitled ‘We Are All Extremophiles’. This event serves as a prologue to ‘An Anatomy of Mars’, Ilana’s upcoming exhibition opening at the LÁ Art Museum on September 13th, 2025. All welcome.
This research has been funded by UK Space Agency/ Science & Technology Facilities Council.
Free cello concert on July 30th at 4:00 PM
Come and join us for beautful music in the museum.
The concert is offered by South Iceland Development Fund.
Jazz concert on August 14th at 4:30 PM
Exciting Jazz concert during the Blooming Days at the Museum,
The quartet of guitarist Ómar Einarsson, along with Kjartan Valdemarsson, Jón Rafnsson and Erik Qvick will perform at the Museum, but they have been widely present in the Icelandic music scene in recent years. The program will include well-chosen works by, among others, Ornette Coleman, John Abercrombie, Victor Young, Pat Metheny and others. It is not unlikely that original material will also be on the program.
Ómar Einarsson guitar
Kjartan Valdemarsson piano
Jón Rafnsson bass
Erik Qvick drums
The concert is offered by Hveragerðisbær
August 15th at 4:00 PM
Come and participate in a drum and dance workshop with Dans Afríka at Blooming Days in Hveragerði.
Registration is required as space is limited.
listasafn@listasafnarnesinga.is
Free program offered by Hveragerði Town and LÁ Art Museum
August 16th at 3:00 PM
On August 16th at 3:00 PM, there will be a unique event, a concert by artists: Þuríður Sigurðardóttir, singer, with Borgar Magnason, composer and double bassist, and Óskar Guðjónsson, saxophonist.
This select group will delight guests of Blooming days at the museum, where love and creativity reign supreme.
Elísabet Jökulsdóttir will also perform and read poetry.
Free event and everyone is welcome.
Don’t let a chance pass you by.
The event is hosted by Hveragerðisbær.
Krishnamurti, Varanasi and the relevances in our times.
A conversation with Navneet Raman director of Kriti gallery and Anandan Residency in Varanasi.
August 16th 2025 at 4:00 PM
Navneet Raman introduces the Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti (1885-1986), who is considered one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century and who had a great influence on the Icelandic authors Halldór Laxness and Þórberg Þórðarson, who both visited him in the interwar years. Krishnamurti himself rejected the movement that initially introduced him to the world and fought throughout his life against any kind of religion and systematic solutions to human problems. The words of the Indian sage have an even more urgent message for the world today as we ask ourselves how we can live in harmony with ourselves, each other and the nature on which we depend. (text: Kristinn Árnason, who translated the book Freedom from the known).
Navneet studied in Rishi Valley School, the first school setup by Krishnamurti. The time in school influenced Navneet in many ways and he attributes a lot of his life and work to the education he received in school. Kriti Gallery and Anandvan Residency are also an extension of his time in school and is a platform to further the cause of education and questioning in the city of Varanasi. A city that has for last 2500 years provided a stage for new ideas, thoughts and questioning.
About Kriti Gallery and Anandan Residency
Situated in a private enclave in the holy city of Varanasi (also known by the ancient name Banaras), in India, the Kriti Gallery was founded in 2005 by Navneet Raman and Petra Manefeld. Two years later, the couple founded the artist retreat known today as the Anandan Residency, which has hosted more than 200 artists from all parts of the world, including several artists from Iceland. Both the gallery and residency are part of the Banaras Cultural Foundation, Ajay Pandey, guides the residents through Varanasi, as resident lecturer and cultural interpreter.
Anandan means “Forest of Bliss,” and indeed the surroundings of the compound is a verdant garden, one of the few remaining in the city. The garden is home to over 22 species of birds and 52 varieties of plants and trees. Artist birthdays are celebrated by the planting of more trees. The Anandan Residency is a place for creativity and contemplation, a non-judgmental space “for having conversations and exploring oneself.” Each guest occupies a private studio with sleeping accommodations. Meals are provided so that resident artists, scholars, and researchers are free to focus on their work.
Navneet Raman
Burning Bridges, performance by Jakob Veigar Sigurðsson.
August 16 – 17th (live stream in the museum)
In the nearly dry riverbed of Skeiðará, Jakob Veigar will perform an art piece that will last for about 24 hours. Seventeen fires will be lit by the old Skeiðará bridge, and they will be watched over through the night into the next day.
The performance bids farewell to Skeiðará, which is now gone, and honors the memory of those who lived in the surrounding countryside and whose lives depended entirely on the struggle against the forces of nature—as well as the bridge that once connected the regions and was the final link in the opening of the Ring Road.
At the same time, as we face changing conditions due to climate change, the bridge stands as a monument to changing times—where past and future meet in this performance.
Through a live broadcast on the internet, the performance aims to connect different dimensions of landscape, memory, and shared responsibility.
Join us for free yoga and gong
August 17th 2025 at 12:10 PM
Last day of exhibition
August 24th 2025
Come and join us for the last day of the exhibtion Among Gods and Mortals: Icelandic Artists in Varanasi.
Pari Stave curator of the exhibition will be present from 14-15.
Artists: Einar Falur Ingólfsson, Eygló Harðardóttir, Guðjón Ketilsson, Margrét H. Blöndal, Sigurður, Árni Sigurðsson, Sólveig Aðalsteinsdóttir.
Time, and space in which to work are two essential conditions for creativity. For visual artists, the studio is a sanctuary, a personal realm for contemplation and industry. This exhibition is the result of a project that posed the question: What happens when artists are transported to a studio far away from the comfort zone of the familiar?
Among Gods and Mortals offers a view into the experience of six accomplished and well-established Icelandic artists whose works shown here were conceived in connection with recent stays at Kriti Gallery and Anandvan Residency, in Varanasi, India. Situated in a verdant garden in a private enclave, the residency compound comprises individual studios with sleeping accommodations and a common dining room – all within one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in human history. The residency is at once a workplace and base camp for excursions into the many-layered worlds of Varanasi (also called Banaras), the spiritual city known in the Hindu faith as the “abode of the gods,” with its many temples and shrines devoted to fervent worship. Varanasi is a city of extremes, of the endless parade of life teeming in the streets and the solemn mourning of the dead at the cremation pyres along the sacred Ganges River.
Photographer and writer Einar Falur Ingólfsson was the first of the six artists to travel to Varanasi, in 1999. His friend, the Indian photographer Dayanita Singh, later introduced him to Navneet Raman and Petra Manefeld (gracious hosts and founders, in 2007, of Kriti Gallery), and Ajay Pandey, the learned historian who guides the artist in residence through the city, inflecting the tours with insights into India’s culture. Eventually, over the course of several return visits, Einar Falur got the idea to bring a group of artists from Iceland to Kriti to see what might emerge from their time spent in the holy city.
It is hard to imagine two more disparate landscapes and cultures than those of Iceland and India. On the one hand there is Iceland, located in the sub-Arctic, sparsely populated, geographically and historically remote, and of relative cultural homogeneity; and India, on the other hand, bordering on tropical latitudes, densely populated, ancient, and layered with a complex history at the cross-roads of diverse cultural influences.
The Icelanders who traveled to Varanasi were following in the footsteps of a long line of artists seeking inspiration and enlightenment there. Yet their purpose was not to illustrate or interpret what they found; rather, it was to allow the intense sensorial experience of the travel to India to wash over them, to see where it might lead within their own practices.
Last day of exhibition BÆR
August 24th 2025
Come and join us for the last day of the exhibtion Bær, A Place between 14-15.
The artists will be present during the day to talk to guests.