Saemundur Thor Helgason is an Icelandic artist based between Reykjavik and Amsterdam. Helgason works across different mediums of visual culture, including film, fashion and mass media. Turning the contemporary onto itself, his works aim to influence the public imagination, serving as active agents in society. In 2017 he founded the interest group Félag Borgara, with the aim of lobbying for Basic Income in Iceland through cultural projects. In 2022 he completed his artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.

Recent exhibitions that Helgason has taken part in include; Why is Iceland so Poor?, Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland (2024), Metaloop - Relentless Dreams, IFS, Changsa, China (2022), Solar Plexus Pressure Belt™ G2 - ELKO, Sequences X, Reykjavik, Iceland (2021), Object of Desire, ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), Singapore, Republic of Singapore (2019), Solar Plexus Pressure Belt™, Unit 110, New York, United States, Fellowship of Citizens, arebyte gallery, London, A guiding dog for blind dog, Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague, Czech Republic (2018), Silicon Dreams with HARD-CORE, Harbinger, Reykjavik, Iceland (2018), SuperFetish S/S, Goethe Institut, Beijing, China (2016), Not in the Berlin Biennale, 9th Berlin Biennale (2016), ÁVÖXTUN % | Rate of Return, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland (2016), CO-WORKERS – Network as Artist, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2015), Vanity Fair | Demo Mode with Leslie Kulesh, Project Native Informant, London (2015).

Helgason is currently a practice teacher at the fine art department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, leading a course called Operation & Purpose, focusing on art that operates outside the confines of art exhibition spaces, serving a predetermined purpose.