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.

Frosti Fjalar’s work is rooted in geometry; with vertical and horizontal lines setting up structures through which movement and internal rhythm unfold. In many of the works, the artist cut canvas into coloured fragments and stapled them directly onto the surface, allowing the picture plane to become tactile and almost sculptural. These material additions unsettle the traditional space of painting, directing attention to the surface, the materiality of the work and the creative process itself.

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, from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He held his first solo exhibition in Bogasalur, at the National Museum of Iceland, in 1976 and later exhibited at Listasafn alþýðu, Ásmundarsalur, Gallerí List and Stöðlakot. 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. The exhibition Bjarmaband brings this significant life’s work back into view and invites audiences into the artist’s disciplined, colourful and rhythmic world.

The exhibition has received support from the Icelandic Visual Arts Fund.