Bedrock: Six Contemporary Artists from Iceland

 In this introduction I am delighted to be able to identify a number of "firsts". Bedrock: Six Contemporary Artists from Iceland marks the first occasion that a group exhibition of works by prominent contemporary Icelandic artists will be shown in a public art gallery in Nova Scotia. While individual artists from Iceland, or with Icelandic connections, have occasionally exhibited their art here, such a gathering of recent works by major Icelandic artists (all currently living in Reykjavík) has rarely occurred anywhere in Canada, let alone in Halifax. We are honored that Anna Líndal, Bigir Andrésson, Hulda Hákon, Jón Óscar, Ragna Róbertsdóttir and Svava Bjoornsdóttir have agreed to participate in this exhibition. All six artists have solid reputations in their own country, as well as significant international exhibition records. I would like to thank them for their co-operation and good humour during the organization of this project.

Bedrock: Six Contemporary Artists from Iceland is taking place in association with "HX" -- the first Halifax Exhibition of International Contemporary Art. Organized under the auspices of the Halifax-based Contemporary Art Projects Society (CAPS), HX is an innovative city-wide collection of exhibitions, performances, videos, films, lectures and symposia taking place in July, August and September 2000. Some events such as the Icelandic exibition, are continuing throughout this period, while others will come and go, in a rich smorgasbord of public events involving artists, curators and critics from Canada and around the globe.

Bedrock: Six Contemporary Artists from Iceland is the first international exhibition to be organized completely in-house by the Dalhousie Art Gallery in more than a decade. Although we host touring international exhibitions on a regular basis, we are seldom able to initiate them ourselves, for financial or organizational reasons. This complex project has required significant co-ordination and logistical support, and I am very grateful to Michele Gallant (the Gallery's Registrar/Preparator) and Sym Corrigan (the Gallery's Office Manager) for their calm professionalism and willing team-work. They also assisted in editing this catalogue, which has been beautifully designed by Darrell Freeman. Finally I am deeply grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for their ongoing support of our Gallery programs in general, and of this exhibition in particular.

Excerpt from the Introduction and Acknowledgements essay from the exhibition catalogue written by Susan Gibson Garvey.