Thursday August 27th at 8 p.m., we welcome you to the opening of two new exhibitions at Hafnarborg, where we present the museum’s 2026 Autumn Exhibition, margins, curated by Katrín Björg Gunnarsdóttir and Úlfur Bragi Einarsson, and Bjarmaband, featuring works by Frosti Fjalar.
Attention is turned to the exhibition space itself and its role in exhibition-making – to the possibilities that reside in the unseen or forgotten, in the void that is never truly empty. Architecture thus not only forms a backdrop for the artworks but becomes an active element in shaping the exhibition. Traditional exhibition-making tends to privilege central focal points and the viewer’s eye level, while here the periphery comes into view, as corners, recesses and other less prominent surfaces of the museum space are brought into focus and given greater weight in the overall experience of the exhibition.
Six artists engage directly with the exhibition space. Working across different media, they all share an interest in exploring the space through material, concept or installation. The margins thus become the subject of the exhibition, both as an actual site and as an idea.
The participating artists are Daníel Ágúst Ágústsson, Gabi Schillig, Hildur Elísa Jónsdóttir, Iyo Hasegawa, Joe Keys and Shiori Ono. The curators are Katrín Björg Gunnarsdóttir and Úlfur Bragi Einarsson.
In the exhibition, visitors are introduced to a selection of works by Frosti Fjalar, an artist who pursued his practice in solitude for several decades. Frosti, formerly known as Jakob Jónsson, had a long and distinctive career spanning more than half a century. Following an active period of exhibiting in the 1970s and 1980s, he withdrew from public exhibitions and worked thereafter largely outside the established structures of the art world. Yet his artistic practice continued with remarkable focus and consistency, resulting in an extensive body of work. Across his career, Frosti’s visual language was shaped by a refined sense of form, disciplined composition and a profound sensitivity to colour.
The exhibition is curated by Ásdís Spanó.
Frosti Fjalar (1936-2026) studied art in Copenhagen, first at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and later at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He was also a trained engineer, having graduated from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. After his final exhibition in 1991, he disappeared from public view, although he continued to work with exceptional perseverance. He left behind nearly six thousand watercolours and around eight hundred paintings. Frosti Fjalar passed away while the exhibition was in preparation, lending the project a new and deeper resonance. Bjarmaband brings this significant life’s work back into view and invites audiences into the artist’s disciplined, colourful and rhythmic world.
Free entry – see you at Hafnarborg.
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