THÓR VIGFÚSSON | NEW GLASS PAINTINGS: Quint Contemporary Art: 7547 Girard Avenue

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.