Born in Iceland and living in Berlin, Egill Sæbjörnsson has long been interested in the connection between mental and physical realities in his practice, first as a painter and musician, and later through video projections and sound works. Many of his site-specific works employ ‘projection mapping,’ where a static object becomes mobilized via custom-designed animations and video projections. Each comes alive as if it were conjured, often realizing actions that defy their own physical properties—a pencil draws by itself, a pair of old boots produce random forms, and a mischievous figure appears out of nowhere. Experiencing such works often leads to questions about the nature of the unified field and whether or not we can project our thoughts onto—and affect—objects in the real world. They are, in other words, a kind of thaumaturgy. However, like a good Buddhist teaching, they also belie a clear sense of humor and a concise slight-of-hand—qualities the artists says “only function when the viewer comes to the work with an openness and receptivity.” 

 

For his first gallery show in Los Angeles (“a place of filmmakers and healers” as he says) Sæbjörnsson will be presenting a half dozen site-specific installations from both past and present, including Kugeln (2008), Ping Pong Dance (2006), and Out of Shoes Humans Grow (2014)

 

Born 1973 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Lives in Berlin, DE. Egill Sæbjörnsson graduated from the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts (now the Icelandic Academy of the Arts) in 1997 and studied at the University of Paris, St.Denis, from 1995 to 1996. He has exhibited wildly around the world including solo shows at: the studio of Willem de Kooning (invited by Robert Wilson and Lisa de Kooning), The Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Reykjavik and Frankfurter Kunstverein. He has also taken part in group shows including Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art Berlin, the Katonah Museum of Art NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade; the Tadeusz Museum, Poland; the NGBK, Berlin; the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm; the Museum of Modern Art, Sydney and SMoCA, Arizona.

 

His works reside in dozens of private collections around the world