NYAB Event - Thordis Adalsteinsdottir "Dog by the Spring"

Thordis Adalsteinsdottir "Dog by the Spring"

57 STUX + HALLER Gallery

This event has ended.

This is the fourth solo show of new paintings by Thordis Adalsteinsdottir. The Icelandic-born, New York-based artist’s new body of paintings offers to viewers another glimpse into her idiosyncratic inner landscapes of otherworlds. In these dreamlike scenes, cohabited by animals and people, strange interactions occur that question the traditional logic and expectations of viewing. The bold abundance of vivid color in her new paintings is not to be read as joyous celebration of life à la Matisse. The color as used in these images is far more ambivalent in its signification: it offers respite from cryptic narratives and a call for viewers’ delectation of beautiful patterns, which are Adalsteinsdottir’s signature pictorial element.

Although not overtly feminist, Adalsteinsdottir’s images of circuitry and sexual geography of the body correspond to self-knowledge achieved through feminine writing (écriture féminine). These themes in an oblique way imply cycles of life, death, and rebirth through an iconography of human and fairy-tale animal imagery. The artist does not use iconic animals and fairy tales because she does not assume the whole traditional narrative of gender as a premise. Often in her depictions animals are human personified only to stress the ambivalence toward gender stereotypes. While melancholy prevails, strange signals of large surfaces of vivid colors and beautiful patterns indicate a redemptive dimension – indeed, happiness can occur, even if not yet. Adalsteinsdottir’s scenes are like frozen moments from dreams and nightmares equally fantastical, absurd, and deadpan. Sometimes the animals wear fishnet stockings; sometimes they are carrying razors; sometimes they are just there to comfort the humans. Without them, human sadness would be unbearable to behold.

[Image: Thordis Adalsteinsdottir “Man Smoking” (2009) Acrylic on canvas 36 x 36 in.]