Breather, Öræfaglacier 1953 / Tungnaár wasteland 2019 Photograph

Gudrun Nielsen Reykjavík-based sculptor has spent most of her artistic career working in the UK. She has competed and exhibited at an international level and been granted many different awards for her art. Gudrun has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions around the world, e.g. UK, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Spain. Gudrun Nielsen aligns herself with a modernist-based formalism with minimalist overtones. Producing large-scale sculpture in a variety of media, Nielsen uses geometrical forms which reflect elements of balance and movement. Drawn to clear and harmonious proportions, as well as cultures, elements of her practice echo Japanese attitudes to mass and shape. The environmental installation The Mountain series, 2014-18 of recycled materials influenced me by the location of my studio in Reykjavík, on the site of Iceland’s leading providers of environmental management services and clean energy. The Barren Wasteland Series 2019 evolved from a July trip to Jökulheimar the home of glaciers, situated in the lower part of the Tungnaá River on the former edge of the Tungnaá Glacier, Iceland. For the past 60 years the glacier has retracted ca.10km on it´s slow but constant drift. The area around Jökulheimar is a barren wasteland of black sand and lava. Photography, using Hasselblad Xpan.