The Living Art Museum
Encyclopedia
The Living Art Museum, most commonly known as Nylo, is a museum and a venue for contemporary visual art in Reykjavík, Iceland. It is committed to the presentation of innovative work by Icelandic and international artists and the collecting and preserving of contemporary works. It is an artist run, member based institution and serves as a collector of works and as a platform for innovative experimental contemporary art.
. It was in the year 1981 that the Gallery of Living Art Museum was founded and the institution has since juggled the dual role of collecting and serving as a venue. The first location of the Museum was in an alley of Vatsstígur 3b, it then moved to another location in the same street and then in 2006 to Laugavegur 26 in Reykjavík. In October 2009 the museum moved to its current location in a former cookie factory on at Skúlagata 28 101. RVK.
with the aim of providing a base for artistic creativity and experimentation. Each year Nylo produces 6 to 8 exhibitions in the gallery space, but also promotes artistic expressions in various forms such as performances, screenings, and workshops to increase program variability. In this way, the museum opts to question and reflect on its current direction and activities at all times.
The Living Art Museum does not represent single artists, but it has throughout the years had an indisputable importance in promoting artists through a sympathetic and non-hierarchical relationship. Nylo is a small institution and that provides an important flexibility; it can constantly revise existing ideas and experiment with new solutions to try to find out ideal circumstances for the artists working within it.
of five individuals. Each member can serve for up to two years and the board work is mostly on a voluntary basis. Nylo evolves under the influence of each successive board and therefore maintains a fluid relationship with developing concerns in the field of visual arts. The broad´s perspectives on contemporary culture offered by the individuals serving on the board, ensures Nylo's role in these discourses, and keeps the Museum’s engagements challenging and current.
The collection holds works of a number of Icelandic artists such as Kristján Guðmundsson, Sigurður Guðmundsson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Magnús Pálsson, The Icelandic Love Corporation, Finnbogi Pétursson, Rúrí, and Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson to name a few. International artists such as Dieter Roth
, Carsten Höller
, Dorothy Iannone
, Douwe Jan Bakker, Franz Graf, John Armleder
, Matthew Barney
, Richard Hamilton
and Robert Filiou. – also to name a few.
is an eclectic collection of papers and documents connected to the museums exhibition history. The archive consists of catalogues, audio and video files, letters, photographs, films, and meeting notes among other things. The archive is a collection with almost arbitrary information about the artists, exhibitions, and other events occurring in relation to the museum. As a part of the 2008 anniversary program the Living Art Museum started two parallel initiatives for organizing and archiving documents from the history of artist-run spaces and artist performance history in Iceland. This project is a creative collaboration with the Reykjavik City Archive, the Icelandic Art Academy and the National Broadcasting service of Iceland
with the aim of making the history of local artist initiatives accessible for future research and preservation. This effort is important to relate the history of Nylo and contemporary art in Iceland to different ideas, theories, and perspectives of cultural history.
, Mondriaan Foundation, Nifca, IASPIS, former DCA), as well as numerous museums and galleries. Nylo is supported and funded by the members of the Living Art Museum, The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and Reykjavik City Council. Other collaborators on a variety of projects are The National Museum of Art, The Reykjavík Art Museum, The Icelandic Academy of the Arts, The national Broadcasting Service (RÚV) to name a few. The living Art Museum is a member of the Sequences Art festival and the Reykjavík Art Festival.
History
The Living Art Museum was founded by a group of twenty artists in 1978 and was the first non-profit artist-run organization in Iceland. Through the last 30 years it has stayed true to its original goals; to create a platform for progressive exhibitions and critical discussions on experimental art practice. The museum has given equal weight to work by international and Icelandic artists. The museum was founded to preserve works that were otherwise rejected by the general art public and authority of the time, the founders were artists mostly associated with the fluxus movement and conceptual artConceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
. It was in the year 1981 that the Gallery of Living Art Museum was founded and the institution has since juggled the dual role of collecting and serving as a venue. The first location of the Museum was in an alley of Vatsstígur 3b, it then moved to another location in the same street and then in 2006 to Laugavegur 26 in Reykjavík. In October 2009 the museum moved to its current location in a former cookie factory on at Skúlagata 28 101. RVK.
Focus
The Living Art Museum focuses on contemporary artContemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
with the aim of providing a base for artistic creativity and experimentation. Each year Nylo produces 6 to 8 exhibitions in the gallery space, but also promotes artistic expressions in various forms such as performances, screenings, and workshops to increase program variability. In this way, the museum opts to question and reflect on its current direction and activities at all times.
The Living Art Museum does not represent single artists, but it has throughout the years had an indisputable importance in promoting artists through a sympathetic and non-hierarchical relationship. Nylo is a small institution and that provides an important flexibility; it can constantly revise existing ideas and experiment with new solutions to try to find out ideal circumstances for the artists working within it.
The Board
The Living Art Museum is managed by a boardBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of five individuals. Each member can serve for up to two years and the board work is mostly on a voluntary basis. Nylo evolves under the influence of each successive board and therefore maintains a fluid relationship with developing concerns in the field of visual arts. The broad´s perspectives on contemporary culture offered by the individuals serving on the board, ensures Nylo's role in these discourses, and keeps the Museum’s engagements challenging and current.
The Collection
The Museum’s collection holds around two thousand works, all donated by artists that have been a part of its history. Traditionally, artists that have exhibited in Nylo have donated works to the collection, which means that over the past 30 years the museum has acquired an eclectic collection of works by both international and Icelandic artists. The Museum also holds a considerable collection of artist books and prints, as well as documents that speak to the context and history of the works in the collection.The collection holds works of a number of Icelandic artists such as Kristján Guðmundsson, Sigurður Guðmundsson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Magnús Pálsson, The Icelandic Love Corporation, Finnbogi Pétursson, Rúrí, and Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson to name a few. International artists such as Dieter Roth
Dieter Roth
Dieter Roth was an Icelandic artist of Swiss German origin best known for his artist's books and for his sculptures and pictures made with rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot....
, Carsten Höller
Carsten Höller
Carsten Höller is a German artist. He lives and works in Farsta, Stockholm, in Sweden. Today, he also shares a house in Ghana with colleague Marcel Odenbach.-Early life and education:...
, Dorothy Iannone
Dorothy Iannone
Dorothy Iannone is an American-born, Berlin-based self-taught artist famous for her psychedelic, erotically-charged work.-Biography:Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1933, Iannone graduated from Boston University in 1957 with a B.A. in American Literature. She went on to study English Literature at...
, Douwe Jan Bakker, Franz Graf, John Armleder
John Armleder
John Armleder as the son of a hotelier , is a Swiss performance artist, painter, sculptor, critic, and curator. His work is based on his involvement with Fluxus in the 1960s and 1970s, when he created performance art pieces, installations and collective art activities that were strongly influenced...
, Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His early works were sculptural installations combined with performance and video...
, Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton may refer to:*Richard Hamilton , Irish officer*Richard Hamilton, 4th Viscount Boyne , Irish MP for Navan*Richard Hamilton , American actor...
and Robert Filiou. – also to name a few.
Archives
The Living Art Museum’s archiveArchive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
is an eclectic collection of papers and documents connected to the museums exhibition history. The archive consists of catalogues, audio and video files, letters, photographs, films, and meeting notes among other things. The archive is a collection with almost arbitrary information about the artists, exhibitions, and other events occurring in relation to the museum. As a part of the 2008 anniversary program the Living Art Museum started two parallel initiatives for organizing and archiving documents from the history of artist-run spaces and artist performance history in Iceland. This project is a creative collaboration with the Reykjavik City Archive, the Icelandic Art Academy and the National Broadcasting service of Iceland
RÚV
Ríkisútvarpið is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization.Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the country, the service broadcasts a variety of general programming to a wide audience across the whole country via radio...
with the aim of making the history of local artist initiatives accessible for future research and preservation. This effort is important to relate the history of Nylo and contemporary art in Iceland to different ideas, theories, and perspectives of cultural history.
Archive of artist run spaces
A great part of the archive of The Living Art Museum encompasses documentation of independent, artist-run spaces in Iceland. A variety of artist-run spaces have been operated in Iceland in the last 35 years, around the country, in mobile and static forms. Their common ground has been their role as a platform for progressive, experimental art, exhibitions of international artists and interaction between different groups of society with the art community. The amount and productiveness of artist-run spaces in Iceland has received international attention and are considered to be very potent. The reasons as to why artists decide to create their own platform are perhaps rooted in their need for collaborative creative processes, many seeing it as a part of their own artistic practice. There has been a lack of infrastructure and specializing in the field of art, a ground for self-organized structures. As an artist-run institution, The Living Art Museum has an ambition to embrace the history of local artist-run spaces and continues to collect documentation on current and future ones.Performance archive
The archiving of documentation on performance works began at the beginning of 2008 and is still active. The results of this process was presented at Nylo as its contribution to the Reykjavik Art Festival. For this occasion an informative booklet, with texts and images of the projects, was printed. The collection of Nylo initially included documentation of 20 performance works from 1978-1981. Recently 46 performances or documentation of performances have been added to the collection. The collecting of documentation is made in close relations with the artists in question, who have used performance extensively in their practice. Quite many local artists work with performance and for a few it is a center medium. The aim of this projects is to preserve documentation of performance and performance-related works, and to establish Nylo as a center-museum of performance in Iceland.Publications
The museum has collaborated and published numerous catalogues on artists and exhibitions in its time. Most recently an extensive publication about the history of the Museum in Icelandic and English. Book title is NÝLISTASAFNIÐ 1978-2008 The occasion of the publication was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the museum on the 5th of January 2008. The purpose was to create a holistic journal and a source of information about the history of the museum by way of making the archives and documents accessible to interested parties. The book contains all basic information about the goings on within the museum from the day of its foundation - as an art-political venue, a venue for contemporary art and as a place of preserving and collecting. The layout aims to make this information accessible and give a good basic ground layout of the history of the Living Art Museum. Editor is Tinna Guðmundsdóttir and designer is Ármann Agnarsson.Collaborators
The Museum has collaborated closely with various institutions. Regarding publications collaborators have been Mál og Menning Publications, Útúrdúr Publications, Skaftfell Cultural Centre. Over the years the Living Art Museum has collaborated with a great number of art organizations (e.g. British CouncilBritish Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
, Mondriaan Foundation, Nifca, IASPIS, former DCA), as well as numerous museums and galleries. Nylo is supported and funded by the members of the Living Art Museum, The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and Reykjavik City Council. Other collaborators on a variety of projects are The National Museum of Art, The Reykjavík Art Museum, The Icelandic Academy of the Arts, The national Broadcasting Service (RÚV) to name a few. The living Art Museum is a member of the Sequences Art festival and the Reykjavík Art Festival.
See also
- Franklin Furnace ArchiveFranklin Furnace ArchiveFranklin Furnace Archive, Inc. is an arts organization based in Brooklyn, New York that serves to preserve and encourage the production of avant-garde art, particularly forms that are under-represented by arts institutions due to their ephemeral nature or politically unpopular...
- Sequences Art Festival
- Storefront for Art and ArchitectureStorefront for Art and Architecture' is a contemporary art and architecture institution founded in 1982 in New York City.-Background:Founded in 1982 by Kyong Park, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization in New York City committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design...