SCULPTED WEAVINGS

Morgunbladid, April 14, 1989

Currently at the Nýhöfn gallery on Hafnarstræti is the first private exhibition from a young artist, Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, who is showing twelve bas relief works that one is tempted to define as a blend of sculpture and weaving, and nine drawings. Ingibjörg views herself primarily as a weaver, and to be sure, her works resemble many pieces at the Nordic Textile Art Biennial. She graduated from the weaving department of the Icelandic School of Art and Crafts in 1980 and then studied conventional sculpture and weaving at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico, which has to be considered a rather unusual educational background. She also pursued graduate study in fiber arts at the Danish National School for Decorative Arts in Copenhagen from 1983-1984. Young artistic talent seeks far and wide in search of inspiration.

Ingibjörg's works bear witness to her sound education and to a variety of influences in contemporary art, which is as it should be. The foundations of her pieces are stone slices, dolerite, basalt, linen, and horsehair, so if her work is defined as fiber art, it has to be said that the artist has from time to time had plenty of hard materials in her hands.

But perhaps this is not the main point, but rather the freshness of ideas about material and form, and even more so, the fact that so many of them are striking and beautiful pieces that would appear to excellent advantage in the right surroundings. Salient among them are the simpler constructions, such as Nocturne (no. 3); Portent (no. 7), a small and clever piece; Echo (9); The River (10); and Dream Stone (12).

In their simplicity and purity, all of these pieces are clear and direct bas relief works that confirm the artist's keen sense for sculpture and the merging of dissimilar materials. And as closely as they resemble sculpture, I would not be surprised to see this artist produce unalloyed sculpture before too long. At all events, the core of these works is a highly developed artistry of shape and form. There should be no barrier to cultivating pure sculpture and weavings in their most original form in the same way that many artists have painted and woven.

Overall, this is a beautiful exhibition that strikes me and possesses both strength and the potential for growth.

Bragi Ásgeirsson