PHOTOS: ISTVAN VIRAG (C) PUNKT Ø / MOMENTUM 9
Ragnar Þórisson (IS)
Untitled (2015)
Untitled (2013)
Ragnar Þórisson’s paintings are in the Edvard Munch – Francis Bacon lineage of internal anguish. His work starts with the human figure, for then to be distorted to reveal the gutted human. His paintings may be narrative but not in the sense of storytelling. They are far too ambiguous to have that sort of staging or structures. The narration is more in the emotional entanglement that we can relate to in the images or, in our recognition of the psychological and emotional stir the images can awake within us as they dig deep beneath our skin and expose the fragility of our psyche. In this perspective, we can look at his paintings as the story of us; alone, disorientated, traumatic and in awe over our own estrangement. Þórisson’s paintings simply depict the feeling of not belonging, as they reflect the image of the alien inside, the alien that is us.