
photo credit: Verena Blok
Saemundur Thor Helgason is an Icelandic artist based between Reykjavik and Amsterdam. He is a co-founder of Cosmos Carl, an online platform that only hosts hyperlinks provided by artists and curators. In 2017 he founded the interest group Félag Borgara (eng. Fellowship of Citizens), 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; 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™ at Unit 110, New York, United States, Fellowship of Citizens at arebyte gallery, London, A guiding dog for blind dog, Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague, Czech Republic (2018), Silicon Dreams with HARD-CORE at Harbinger, Reykjavik, Iceland (2018), SuperFetish S/S at Goethe Institut, Beijing, China (2016), Not in the Berlin Biennale at 9th Berlin Biennale (2016), ÁVÖXTUN % | Rate of Return at Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland (2016), CO-WORKERS – Network as Artist at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2015), Vanity Fair | Demo Mode with Leslie Kulesh at 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.