As the sun bursts through

Art of the Faroe Islands

Opening on Thursday January 13 from 6pm

In the Faroes, January is one of the darkest months of the year. Many places in the islands get no sun at all during the winter. But once spring arrives, the entire archipelago is constantly bathed in light. No wonder light is so central to Faroese art - and to this exhibition about the art of the Faroe Islands. “As the sun bursts through” considers the importance of light and how its treatment has evolved in Faroese art of the 20th and 21st centuries via figurative and abstract artworks by Ingálvur av Reyni (1920-2005), Zacharias Heinesen (born in 1936), Hansina Iversen (born in 1966) and Rannvá Kunoy (born in 1975).

The exhibition title alludes to a canticle by the baroque Danish poet Thomas Kingo (1634-1703), Som den gyldne sol frembryder (As the golden sun bursts through), which refers to the sun piercing pitch-dark clouds. Kingo's collection of hymns is of especial historical importance in the Faroe Islands, where it was for many years the main hymnal used. The hymns were sung not only in churches and at ceremonies, but by fishermen and other Faroe Islanders as they went about their everyday activities.

Through the artworks of four Faroese painters, the exhibition “As the sun bursts through” considers Faroese art from the standpoint of treatments of light in contemporary and more traditional schools of painting, from post-Impressionist interpretations of natural light to flat blocks of pure colour in abstract art, and pictures that themselves seem to capture and reflect light.

The Faroe Islands or Faroes (Føroyar) are an archipelago of eighteen islands located in the Atlantic Ocean, between Scotland and Iceland, with a population of around 53,300. The inhabitants speak Faroese, a West Scandinavian language that belongs to the same family as Icelandic and Old Norse. Among the Germanic languages, Faroese is the national language spoken by the smallest number of people. The Faroes are a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, but have considerable autonomy, with their own government and legislative assembly, Føroya Løgting, which is one of the oldest parliaments in the world.

Hansina Iversen
Untitled, 2021
Oil on canvas
140 x 190 cm