Safnasafnið (The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum) is a widely revered place due to it conducting a balancing act of appealing to artists and non-artists alike with a mixture of folk, contemporary art, the in-between and the margins. The museum is situated just outside the village of Svalbarðseyri in North Iceland in a rural setting under the heath of Vaðlaheiði, with a river on one side and grazing sheep on the other. It houses an ever-expanding dynamic collection of artworks along with archives, house plants, galleries, a library, a guest residency, and a home.

As the museum is also a home to the founders, Níels and Magnhildur, a precedent is set in that they not only represent an institution, but also their everyday lives, and through that they host and welcome like no other museum. 

When we speak of a museum, we don’t necessarily think of the individuals behind the institution. In the case of the Living Art Museum, Nýlistasafnið, we think of the countless artists and art workers that have shaped and reshaped it since its founding in 1978. With Safnasafnið we can acknowledge the many hands and artists that have shaped it, but the dedication and eccentricity within can be attributed to Níels and Magnhildur. 

Both Safnasafnið and Nýlistasafnið were founded as a means to prevent gaps from forming in the Icelandic art scene. Just as the young artists who established Nýlistasafnið found themselves marginalised and overlooked at the time, and then joined forces to establish a museum, Safnasafnið draws the marginalised from the periphery to the centre.

This cross collaboration between the two museum boards came to be during the seminar Inside Out: Collecting on the Peripheries in 2023. With this exhibition we bring only a fraction of the multitude of artworks Níels and Magnhildur have collected together since the beginning of their relationship. Níels and Magnhildur have succeeded in creating a pivot for the appreciation of beauty in its many forms out of love for natural as well as human expressions.

In an attempt to present artwork and artists, as well as the context in which they most often reside - Safnasafnið. The framework of the exhibition consists of simple structures that follow Safnasafnið's esthetics. Unconcerned with appearing sleek or elegant - the structures are sturdy and functional enough to hold the hundreds of tiny figures.

Artists:

Ása Ketilsdóttir 

Atli Viðar Engilbertsson 

Björn Líndal Guðmundsson (1906 - 1996)

Edda Guðmundsdóttir 

Egill Ólafur Guðmundsson (1908-1997) 

Eiríkur Júlíus Guðmundsson (1909-2008)

Erla Björk Sigmundardóttir 

Finnur Ingi Erlendsson 

Friðrik Hansen (1947-2005)

Guðjón R. Sigurðsson (1903 - 1991)

Guðrún Nilsen (1914-2000)

Gunnar Sigfús Kárason (1931 - 1996)

Halldóra Kristinsdóttir (1930-2013) 

Helga Dómhildur Alfreðsdóttir 

Hildur Kristín Jakobsdóttir (1935-2003) 

Hjálmar Stefánsson frá Smyrlabergi (1913-1989)

Ingibjörg Hrefna Sigurðardóttir 

Ingvar Ellert Óskarsson (1944-1992)

Laufey Jónsdóttir 

Matthías Mar Einarsson 

Pálmi Kristinn Arngrímsson (1939-2015)

Pétur Hraunfjörð (1922-1999)

Sigurður Sveinsson (1904-2006)

Snæbjörn Eyólfsson (1897-1973)

Steinþór Leósson 

Svava Skúladóttir (1909-2005)

Yngvi Örn Guðmundsson (1938 – 2022)

Þórhalla Sigþórsdóttir

Örn Karlsson

Curators:

Guðlaug Mía Eyþórsdóttir

Joe Keys

Odda Júlía Snorradóttir
Unnar Örn J. Auðarsson

The following photograph is of a work by Erla Björk Sigmundardóttir.