A native of Reykjavik, Iceland, Heimir Björgúlfsson was brought up in the unspoiled surroundings of the Icelandic landscape. Moving to Amsterdam to study art, he was struck by the contrast between these two environments. Where once he had been immersed in nature, he now inhabited a place profoundly altered by human forces. This formative experience became indelibly imprinted on his imagination, remaining a lasting influence on the ideas that drive his work. Having moved to the West Coast and made Los Angeles his home for more than a decade, Björgúlfsson writes of its influence: “Living and working in Los Angeles, I continue to draw inspiration from the city’s unique interplay between the artificial and the natural, its layered histories, and its diverse cultural fabric. My perspective remains informed by these geographic and cultural contrasts.”

In The Way of Things, Björgúlfsson presents a new series of paintings inspired by his fascination with the diverse sensory abilities developed by wildlife that operate beyond human perception. Musing on a myriad of nonhuman abilities—such as bats using echolocation, hawkmoths perceiving floral colors beneath the faintest starlight, hummingbirds detecting ultraviolet hues invisible to the human eye, and butterflies tasting through receptors on their feet—Björgúlfsson allows these wondrous attributes to collide with human history, culture, and our impulse to anthropomorphize, creating unexpected narratives within his paintings. Sharing the same habitat, we live alongside countless animals, often without awareness of their presence. By imagining a crossroads between these parallel yet vastly different experiences, Björgúlfsson creates surprising conjunctions that invite a greater appreciation of the beauty, intelligence, and vulnerability of our fellow creatures as they navigate an increasingly human-shaped world.

Heimir Björgúlfsson (b. Reykjavík, Iceland, 1975) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He received his MFA from the Sandberg Institute in 2003 and his BFA from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2001, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 1998, he graduated from the Sonology program at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. His work has been exhibited widely in Europe and the United States in both solo and group exhibitions. He recently participated in the group exhibition California Dreaming, 2025, at Contemporary Art Matters in Columbus, Ohio. Recent solo exhibitions include No Hard Feelings at Fantasía Vinnustofa Kjarval, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2025, and This Will Solve Everything, 2024, at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work is held in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti, Columbus, Ohio; 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky; the Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland; and the Akureyri Art Museum, Akureyri, Iceland. In 2025, he won The Homiens Art Prize in New York. In 2012, he was nominated for the Carnegie Art Award in Stockholm, Sweden, and in 2006, he was nominated for the De Volkskrant Visual Art Prize in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.