In “Up and Down,” Icelandic artist Guðmundur Thoroddsen presents Rorschach-like paintings that segue back and forth from micro to macro. Lichen, fungus or rot simultaneously appear as precipice, gorge or stream. Although Thoroddsen attempts to disassociate himself with the baggage of landscape in western thought and imagination, the matter-like pigment and scumbled voids are still subjected to …
In “Up and Down,” Icelandic artist Guðmundur Thoroddsen presents Rorschach-like paintings that segue back and forth from micro to macro. Lichen, fungus or rot simultaneously appear as precipice, gorge or stream. Although Thoroddsen attempts to disassociate himself with the baggage of landscape in western thought and imagination, the matter-like pigment and scumbled voids are still subjected to our emotional and spiritual experience of them. In the quest for the untainted gesture however, Thoroddsen does attain a sense of self-erasure. The artist’s hand, present but also not, coaxes into light …
