#1 [May 2005]

His paintings are expressive, visually overwhelming, modeled with vibrating colors and telling phantastic stories. They are often mixing the visual language of comics, with the formal abstraction of Van Gogh and the composition of old masters like Rubens.

In fact Ómar Stefánsson, who studied art at the Academies of Reykjavík and Berlin (West), has a wide range of artistic expression. He on the one hand side published comics called “Bandormur” (tapeworm) in the 1980s. On the other hand he was - together with among others Finnbogi Pétursson and Björn Roth - a member of the performance group Bruni bb, which shocked the post modern Icelandic society.

Not so loud please, 1999 Oil on canvas, 120 x 110 cm

Ómar Stefánsson was also participating in the famous performative Rock-Band “inferno5” (together with Óskar Thorarensen, Þorri Jóhannsson, Örn Ingólfsson, Eggert Ketilsson). Ómar Stefánsson cooperated for different kind of projects with Dieter and Björn Roth. In Dieter Roth Verlag for example he published a book called “Hazard Zone” (1984) together with Björn. In the same year he participated in the Orgien Mysterien Theater of the Austrian Hermann Nitsch. With Nitsch – who was teaching in Iceland at that time – he performed in a huge music-action which was recorded and published in a 6-record-box by Dieter Roth and was called the “Islandsymphonie” (Iceland Symphony). But then he was painting as well for the ballroom in the famous Hotel Borg in the Center of Reykjavík the ceiling of the ballroom in a semi-baroque manner. Actually he is working with the artists Bjarni Þórarinsson and Goddur on a huge project on a graphic series called “Cosmosis”.
Ómar Stefánsson’s work, his phantasy and variety is very impressing. He probably is one of the most unique artists of – at least – Iceland.

Christian Schoen