Renowned Icelandic sculptor and artist Steinunn Thorarinsdottir has been named a Distinguished Lecturer for the Governors State University College of Arts and Sciences for the Fall 2009 term.
The artist will visit the university campus on Oct. 13-14 to interact with students and faculty and will deliver a talk about her work, its process, and the impact Iceland has on her figurative sculpture. “Horizons: The Figurative World of Steinunn Thorarinsdottir” will take place at 7:00 PM on Oct. 14 as part of the University’s 2009 ArtsFest programming.
A major installation work by the artist, entitled “Horizons” is currently on view at the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park on the campus of Governors State University. The piece consists of 12 life-sized cast-iron figures, each of which possesses a glass insert in their upper torso. The artist explains this juxtaposition of glass and iron, “The color of the iron signifies their primal quality—as if they are emerging from the earth,” while, “Glass as a material has a lot of different connotations. It can be fragile, yet dangerous. It can be translucent, or solid . . . It’s like water, but also like air.” The work was featured in the January 2009 issue of Sculpture Magazine and is also the subject of the documentary film “Horizons “by independent filmmaker Frank Cantor, which won the CINE Special Jury Award in Washington as the best short documentary of 2008.
Steinunn Thorarinsdottir has studied at the Portsmouth Academy of Art and Design in England and the Accademia di Belle Arte in Bologna, Italy.
Horizons was brought to the U.S. by the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY for exhibition in 2007. The work has been exhibited in Memphis, TN and San Antonio, TX and will continue to travel after its stay in University Park. Funding for her visit has been provided by the GSU College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Liberal Arts, Harris Bank, and contributions by Members of the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park.
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