The Carnegie Art Award 2006

An exhibition of works nominated for the prestigious Carnegie Art Awards is currently on display at the Reykjavík Art Museum, and will be until August 20th, so if you feel in the mood to take in the best Scandinavia has to offer in mental stimulation, then by all means make your way down there. This year’s first-prize winner is Karin Mamma Andersson, who was known for her whimsical landscape paintings, but has switched to more contemplative impressionism in recent years. Also of note are Petra Lindholm’s brooding and mesmerising film Until, Eggert Pétursson’s extravagantly detailed flower paintings, so lavishly detailed that it borders on obsession, Jón Óskar’s enigmatic abstracts, Jesper Christiansen’s intriguing spatial explorations and Henrik Samuelsson’s dreamlike fantasy world. Also, the coffee’s not bad.