Iceland - 5 - Art

11-15 August,  24 August - 4 September, 2025

Public art, folk art, fine art, galleries - it's all there in Iceland.

Safnasafnið - The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum

30 August

Safnasafnið is a museum featuring folk art, handicrafts (recognizing the significant contribution of women to Icelandic art), and fine art. It's on the east side of Eyjafjörður, near Akureyri. There's too much on display to do justice to the collection in a short blog. Check out the website to see more.

A large wooden structure outside the museum gives an idea of the art to be found within.

This cat may be our favorite item in the collection.

The library has an impressive collection of art books, and several interesting sculptures.

Djúpivogur

27 August
Djúpivogur is both a historic town on Berufjörður in east Iceland and home to one of the more interesting public art displays: The Eggs of Merry Bay" (Eggin í Gleðvik).

34 huge granite eggs are displayed on the road along Djúpivogur's harbor. Each one represents a local bird species.

The eggs are lined up in a long row.

Flateyri Bird Murals

2 September

The town of Flateyri is known for several things: the oldest bookstore in Iceland, a folk culture school, a devastating avalanche, and bird murals. Icelandic-American artist Jean Larson has painted 13 murals of local birds on buildings around Flateyri. While we didn't take time to find all 13, we enjoyed the ones we did see.

Two murals can be seen from one spot. Whooper Swan (left) and Golden Plover (right).

Eurasian Wren

Other artists have also started to paint murals in Flateyri. I liked this garden painting on a garage wall.

Petra's Stone Collection

27 August

It's difficult to categorize this popular tourist attraction in Stöðvarfjörður. Is it art? Is it geology?

It is an amazing collection of 70 years work, displayed in the collector's (Petra Sveinsdóttir) house and garden. It takes a small army of volunteers to keep up the site.

Most of the collection is displayed on shelves in the garden.

There are thousands of brightly colored rocks and minerals on display. It's difficult to comprehend that all of these stones were collected in Iceland - most of the rocks we saw were shades of gray.

A rainbow of rocks and crystals.

Is It Art?

4 September

These cracks in a concrete bench along the beach in Ytri Tunga sure look like Icelandic runes, even though we're pretty sure they are just random cracks.