Iceland’s landscapes may dominate the postcards, but Reykjavík’s galleries, festivals and collaborative art scene reveal an equally compelling side of the country.
Most journeys to Iceland begin with the landscape. Travellers come in search of thundering waterfalls, black-sand beaches, volcanic fields, glaciers and the shifting green light of the aurora borealis. These natural spectacles are undeniably among the country’s greatest attractions, but they can also overshadow another, more intimate way of understanding Iceland: through its contemporary art. Reykjavík may be one of Europe’s smallest capitals, yet its cultural influence is remarkably large. Music, visual art, design, literature and experimental performance are not peripheral activities here. They are part of the way Iceland interprets itself. For visitors willing to spend some time away from the Ring Road, Reykjavík’s museums and creative spaces offer something that even the most dramatic waterfall cannot provide: an encounter with the imaginations of the people who live amid these extraordinary surroundings.
Art shaped by nature — but not confined by it
The relationship between Icelandic art and the natural world is impossible to ignore. Volcanic activity, extreme weather, long winter darkness and almost continuous summer light all find their way into the country’s creative vocabulary. Yet Icelandic artists rarely treat nature simply as scenery. It becomes material, collaborator, threat, memory and sometimes political argument. The landscape is used to explore questions of environmental responsibility, identity, grief, technology and humanity’s uncertain place within the natural world. Iceland’s small population has also helped create a closely connected artistic community. Musicians collaborate with visual artists; fashion designers work with performers; filmmakers cross into installation art; and galleries, museums and independent spaces frequently share projects. This collaborative culture partly reflects a society in which creative resources and audiences are limited. But it may also echo an older Icelandic reality: in a remote North Atlantic environment, cooperation has traditionally been essential to survival.
Reykjavík Arts Festival: the city as a cultural meeting place
One of the best introductions to this creative ecosystem is the Reykjavík Arts Festival, or Listahátíð í Reykjavík. Founded in 1970, the biennial event has played an important role in connecting Icelandic artists with international cultural movements. Its 35th edition took place from 30 May to 14 June 2026, bringing exhibitions, concerts, theatre, dance and multidisciplinary performances to established institutions and less conventional spaces across the capital. The festival describes its mission as presenting outstanding artistic creation while making culture accessible to the widest possible audience. Its programme combines Icelandic voices with internationally established artists, creating a dialogue between local experience and global concerns. The main festival has now ended, but some of its most significant exhibitions continue through the summer and into early autumn. That makes 2026 an especially rewarding year for travellers who want to add an artistic dimension to an Icelandic journey.
Björk’s echolalia: entering a world of sound, nature and memory
At the National Gallery of Iceland, echolalia examines Björk not simply as a singer but as a multidisciplinary artist working across sound, image, performance, ecology and technology. The exhibition presents three compositions on a theatrical scale. Two of them, Ancestress and Sorrowful Soil, were created in honour of Björk’s late mother, environmental activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir. Ancestress approaches mourning as a ritual procession, placing musicians and dancers within an Icelandic landscape while reflecting on the cyclical nature of life. Sorrowful Soil, meanwhile, is a nine-part choral requiem. Thirty individual speakers transmit separate voices from the Hamrahlíð Choir, surrounding visitors with an intensely physical architecture of sound. The exhibition also includes a new work connected to Björk’s forthcoming album, extending the presentation beyond retrospective celebration and into her continuing artistic evolution. What emerges is a particularly Icelandic fusion of ancient ritual, digital experimentation, communal singing and environmental consciousness. Nature remains present, but it is transformed into emotional and symbolic space. echolalia is scheduled to remain at the National Gallery of Iceland until 20 September 2026.
James Merry’s creatures of transformation
The National Gallery is also presenting Metamorphlings, the first museum retrospective devoted to British artist James Merry, Björk’s long-standing creative collaborator. The exhibition brings together more than 80 masks and sculptural objects produced during the past decade. Many were created for Björk’s performances, while others were designed in collaboration with figures including Tilda Swinton and Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. Removed from the stage and displayed as independent artworks, the pieces reveal their extraordinary detail. Embroidery, metalwork, jewellery techniques and three-dimensional printing are combined to create forms that appear simultaneously biological and fantastical. Masks have traditionally allowed people to assume another identity. Merry takes that idea further, concentrating on the unstable moment in which identity is still changing. His creations resemble organisms caught between flower, insect, human face and imagined species. The exhibition therefore complements echolalia particularly well. Both projects explore metamorphosis, ritual and collaboration, dissolving the boundaries between the human body, technology and the natural world. Metamorphlings continues until 18 October 2026.
Karin Sander and the art created by Iceland itself
At Reykjavík Art Museum’s Hafnarhús venue, German conceptual artist Karin Sander offers another interpretation of the relationship between art and environment. Sander has spent considerable time in Iceland over the past 30 years, and the country has become an important subject and participant in her work. Her exhibition Karin Sander: 1957–2057 includes pieces from across her career alongside new works created specifically through encounters with Icelandic places. Among the most revealing are her Patina Paintings. Instead of applying paint with a brush, Sander placed untreated canvases in locations around Iceland, including Arnarfjörður and Kerlingarfjöll. Weather, moisture, dust and time marked their surfaces, allowing the environment itself to produce the final images. Visitors can also become part of the exhibition. In the evolving work Museum Visitors 1:8, members of the public are scanned and reproduced as small three-dimensional figures. The resulting installation grows throughout the exhibition, turning the museum audience into both subject and material. Rather than representing Icelandic nature, Sander allows natural processes, geographical measurements and human presence to shape the work directly. Her minimal interventions encourage visitors to look differently at ordinary surfaces, spaces and objects. The exhibition is expected to continue at Hafnarhús until September 2026; visitors should confirm the final date with Reykjavík Art Museum when planning their trip.
A different Icelandic itinerary
An art-focused visit does not require abandoning Iceland’s landscapes. On the contrary, the galleries can make those landscapes more meaningful. After experiencing Björk’s environmental elegies, Merry’s organic masks or Sander’s weathered canvases, a lava field or mountain valley may no longer appear to be empty scenery. It becomes part of a cultural conversation about memory, transformation and survival. The ideal Reykjavík itinerary can therefore move between the National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík Art Museum, independent galleries, concert venues and the shoreline itself. The city is compact enough for much of this exploration to be completed on foot. Waterfalls and northern lights may provide the images travellers first associate with Iceland. Its art, however, reveals how Icelanders experience the forces surrounding them — and how they transform those forces into something shared.
For visitors seeking the country behind the postcard, Reykjavík’s creative world may be the Iceland experience they did not know they were missing.
Suggested Online Sources
Listahatid.is/en
Reykjavik.is
Listasafn.is/en/bjork/
Listasafn.is/en/james-merry-metamorphlings/
Listasafn.is/en/art/exhibitions/
Listasafnreykjavikur.is
Icelandicartcenter.is
