Thordis Adalsteinsdottir : Conversations During a Heatwave

Nunu Fine Art Taipei's Project Space is pleased to announce the presentation of "Conversations During a Heatwave," of Icelandic artist Thordis Adalsteinsdottir’s new series of works on paper.

These colored drawings resemble a compendium of absurd short stories. A cat, standing on its hind legs, secretes milk while extinguishing a cigarette on a plate of cold meat; a polar bear drinks beer; a nearly naked man runs past giant mushrooms while a huge owl in the foreground calmly returns the viewer’s gaze. Adalsteinsdottir constructs these ultra-flat figurative compositions with delicate horizontal brushstrokes on monochromatic backgrounds. Her fantastical scenes, using humor and whimsy to probe deep existential questions, recall art movements such as post-Pop art, Expressionism, feminism, Surrealism, and Symbolism.

Adalsteinsdottir’s themes include such topical issues as ecological disaster, digital addiction, and social alienation. Filled with mundane details, her enchanting comic images explore the limits of biological and psychological adaptability. Creatures that summon myths yet refuse to conform to stereotypes, softly bizarre human bodies, plastic bottles hinting at spiral into climate change and pollution, men busy connecting with the outside world through their phones but appearing more alienating from his surroundings, and mushrooms suggest abundant references —Thordis gazes upon the boundaries of magic and reality, delving into the multifaceted essence of the world and offering insights.

Thordis Adalsteinsdottir was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and divides her time between Reykjavik and Rennes, France. She obtained an MFA from the SVA in New York after completing her studies at the Icelandic Academy of Arts and the Universidad de Barcelona in Spain. She now works and lives in Normandie, France.

Artist