ANNA JÓELSDÓTTIR NEW PAINTINGS AT ZG GALLERY

Monday, 04 September 2006 11:15

Chicago, IL - Anna Jóelsdóttir’s paintings are inspired by the dramatic landscapes and striking contrasts of her beloved homeland (Iceland) and her adopted country (USA).  Born and raised in Iceland, Jóelsdóttir’s heart and aesthetic remain deeply connected to the stunning vistas of volcanoes, waterfalls, glaciers, geysers, mountains and fjords of her native land.  “heima? / home?” is her new body of work investigating the cognitive, cultural and visual dislocation and dissonance she experiences trying to adjust to a different language, culture, and geography.  On exhibition September 8 – October 21, 2006.

Jóelsdóttir’s paintings are tightly wound compositions of minutely drawn details, zipping bolts of solid color and trajectory lines rendered on a stark white ground.  The results are fractured topographies of cartographic and structural forms, combined with gestures suggesting turbulence and released energy that imply both natural landscapes & urban architectural forms, where order and chaos are forced to exist on the same picture plane.  “I paint hard edge structures of stripes, paths, and fragments of something larger.”  The addition of ink drawings to her paintings, express “both controlled and chaotic fragments of interrupted lines, structures, signs, and symbols.”  These “fragments move, search, connect, disconnect, and disguise.  They distort vision, interrupt time, and echo space like our memories do.”

No longer living in an expansive landscape of glaciers, hot springs, and active lava deserts, or speaking in her native language,  Jóelsdóttir must constantly balance the daily dislocation and bridge the gaps of “heima / home.”