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Opening reception: Saturday, November 19 from 6 to 8 PM
Quint Contemporary Art is pleased to exhibit new work by Icelandic artist Thór Vigfússon. This will
be the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work at Quint Contemporary Art and will include
approximately 16 new glass paintings. Vigfússon was included in a 2008 group exhibition at QCA
featuring prominent Icelandic artists. Thór Vigfússon: New Glass Paintings, will open with a
reception on Saturday, November 19 from 6 to 8 PM. The reception is open to the public and the
artist will be in attendance.
For many years, Thór Vigfússon (b. 1954) has been investigating the interaction between art and
its surroundings through works made of glass, plexi, mirrors, and formica. He primarily works with
colored glass and mirrors, which allow for engagement between the work and the viewer. The
misleading simplicity of Vigfússon’s works are constantly mutating on an intimate plane with the
viewer. The artwork creates a dialogue with architectural design through their simple geometric
forms and pure colors.
Vigfússon, a recipient of the Carnegie Art Award in 2008, was described as an artist whose:
“…Tersely elegant works hover on the boundary between painting and wall
sculpture. Installed on or leaning against walls these minimal works reflect the
viewer and their surroundings and play with the reflections of the surrounding
room and the onlooker. At the same time the images become transparent
because of the nature of colored glass. Like minimalist exclamation marks,
Vigfússon’s works are seductive in their simplicity.”
In the context of Southern California, Vigfússon’s work is reminiscent of artists like John
McCracken and Larry Bell, whose “fetish finish” works focus the viewer’s attention on their
phenomenological space in the world. Vigfússon’s work in this exhibition highlight the artist’s use
of glass, which is cut in a particular shape, the edges polished, and the back painted with a
certain color. The slightest changes in proportion or color, being built on such minimalism, leads
to significantly different outcomes. Each work also changes according to its location and the
location in turn is altered as it accommodates the work – the interplay amplified in the mirror
effect of the glass.
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