Louisa Matthiasdottir

The Tibor de Nagy Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Louisa Matthíasdóttir (1917-2000). This marks the gallery's seventh solo exhibition with the artist.

 Matthíasdóttir lived and worked in both New York and Iceland, and is known for her realist paintings that employ a vibrant palette and a strong geometric structure. The exhibition will include a selection of landscapes of her native Iceland, populated with figures, sheep, dogs, and horses. Also on view will be her lesser-known self-portraits and views of Reykjavík, and rare portraits of her daughter Temma from circa 1959-1961.

 Matthíasdóttir came of age as an artist in the mid-20th century, a period marked by experimentation. She became a realist painter and reinvented the form. Engaging with abstraction and a pared-down essentialism that resonated with the rugged Icelandic landscape, she created a unique and prescient style that she developed over her four-decade career.

 Born in Reykjavík in 1917, Matthíasdóttir first studied art in Copenhagen and later in Paris, becoming a prominent younger member of Iceland’s first avant-garde. In 1942, she moved to New York, where she studied at Hans Hofmann’s school. There, alongside fellow Hofmann students such as Robert De Niro Sr., Larry Rivers, Nell Blaine, and Jane Freilicher, she helped foster a renewed relevance for representational painting.

 Matthíasdóttir's first New York gallery exhibition was in 1948 at the Jane Street Gallery, the original artists' cooperative. From the 1960s through the 1980s, she exhibited regularly at the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery in New York, as well as throughout the U.S. and Europe. Her paintings are held in numerous private and public collections, including the Tate Gallery, London; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A retrospective was held at Scandinavia House in New York in 2004, which then traveled to Iceland and several European countries. In 2017, a centenary exhibition was held at the Reykjavík Art Museum.

 Matthíasdóttir is currently featured in the group exhibition A Time for Everything: 25 Years of Contemporary Art at Scandinavia House, New York, on view from October 2025 through February 2026.