Gvøðny Maria Áarstein

Gvøðny Maria Áarstein (1991) is an autodidact artist living in Copenhagen. Born and raised in the Faroe Islands, she left to settle elsewhere and narrated that emotional and physical journey through the solo painting exhibition ‘Alienated’ in 2023. Exploring the concept of space and whom it holds space for, the paintings became the tangible manifestations of her coming to terms with always being Faroese though without belonging. Of shedding the imposed identity of being strange at the price of being a stranger.

Faroese scenery is always in your face and the weather controls your liberty, but even the vastness can become claustrophobic if the colors of your existence don’t match the societal palette. Blend in or stand out. Squeeze into the space, expand it to fit you, or exit. Exist. In, on, or outside. But above all just look.

Traditionally using gouache, watercolor, lino, and acrylics, she is expanding her horizon by experimenting with the spatial and associative dimensions of video and sound. After ‘Alienated’, Gvøðny’s next exploration will be deep into the human through a series of portraits offering a window to look in rather than out. Challenging interpersonal estrangement by luring the viewer to listen to someone alien to them.

The little girl drawing into existence the emotions too large to fit the surroundings grew up to realize that nature doesn’t have to be natural, and that all that is natural isn’t necessarily found in nature.