PAST EXHIBITION:
FARA OG KOMA / COMING AND GOING
- NEW PAINTINGS BY SOPHIA RIZVI
Sophia Rizvi first visited Iceland in 1994 at the invitation of Karolina Larusdottir, one of Iceland’s leading artists. The effect was immediate. Sophia returned to her 2nd year at Byam Shaw School of Art and changed from making monochromatic prints centred around derelict city buildings to creating paintings in rich colours, based on Iceland. That passion for her subject has never diminished, and she has used Iceland as the basis for all her paintings since then. Now she cannot remember just how many times she has visited nor how much time she has spent there – it is enough to know that she considers it as her home away from home.
Although she has been working in Iceland for the past 13 years, she has no thoughts of stopping. The subject is so extensive, so varied, and so fascinating that she knows that this is not a simple, finite subject. In her words, “I am far from finished. I have
a number of ideas which I am already working on for paintings next year”
Kate Pierrepont, SW1 Gallery
It is always to be welcomed when an artist outside of Iceland undertakes to express my country through an artistic perspective which I and my fellow Icelanders would most probably not realise ourselves. Sophia Rizvi has previously shown that she is sensitive to the natural beauty of Iceland, its colours and shadows at different periods of the year. For it is the raw natural beauty of the country and it’s ever changing natural light that facinates so many foreigners. Sophia forces you to look at Iceland in
an abstract manner which you may not have thought of yourself.
I congratulate Sophia in presenting this delightful exhibition and wish her well in her future endeavours.
H.E. Sverrir Haukur Gunnlaugsson, Ambassador of Iceland in UK