Loji Höskuldsson

Neighbours

V1 Gallery is pleased to present

Neighbours 
A solo exhibition by Loji Höskuldsson
March 13 – April 25, 2026

Opening reception: March 13, 16.00 – 21.00

"The exhibition originated from the fictional next-door neighbours to Danish furniture designer and architect Finn Juhl. It is a family of four, a mother, a father and their two kids in their early teens. The family holds the aesthetic power within the home, each member shaping it in different ways. The father works outside of the home, and even though he is not physically at home often, he has a presence in the house that everyone feels. The kids make their mark by leaving traces around the house, becoming part of the home’s continuous formation. The mother is the final gatekeeper, loving and with great family aspirations. There is not much more to this family, the kids dream of getting a dog one day. Together, they run a cultural home but have little experience in doing so. As a family, they find themselves peeking over the fence to Finn Juhl’s house to daydream about what their home could or should become. It’s not just curiosity, but the quiet effect of proximity, how living so close makes comparison almost unavoidable. The hedgerow marks the boundary between the life they have and the one they imagine next door. Getting their hands dirty in the bed of flowers, they find peace from the mismatch of their expectations and the reality they live. Their reality is inside the home; their expectations are across the hedge.

My aesthetic interests lie in modernism through art, design and architecture, where Finn Juhl, among others, is a central figure. He connects me to the aesthetic world I have long explored, not least through my fascination with the Icelandic architect Sigvaldi Thordarson. It therefore felt natural that Juhl’s house, or rather the house beside it, would become the point of departure for this exhibition.

Another link to Finn Juhl is the Icelandic sculptor Sigurjón Ólafsson, as the two of them were good friends. Ólafsson’s work has not been a central influence on my work, but I’ve encountered his work time and time again in my daily life. I visited Vejle, on the coast of Denmark, and I saw nothing but sculptures by Sigurjón Ólafsson in front of the city hall. In Kødbyen, Copenhagen, there is an iconic bull relief which he worked on with the Danish sculptor Einar Utzon-Frank. 

Sundaborg, where I have my current studio in Reykjavik, is decorated with his reliefs; his presence has followed me almost unconsciously. Ólafsson returned to Iceland with fewer opportunities there and less financial support despite a promising career in Denmark, with many commissions and awards. 

Perhaps this is why I return to this narrative of proximity. The family next door, Ólafsson in Denmark, and even myself moving through spaces marked by their work, all exist within a landscape of influence that is felt more than declared. The hedge becomes a metaphor for the space between admiration and authorship, between dreaming and building.” 

—Loji Höskuldsson, 2026

Loji Höskuldsson’s process is excruciatingly slow, days and months, stitch by stitch, small and large-scale compositions appear on burlap, giving him ample time to reflect on the subject matter at hand. This meditative creative process is embedded in the final work, encouraging an intuitive contemplative response from the viewer, slowing our cognitive response to the work and leaving space for a more tactile relationship and reading. It’s a form of storytelling founded in a craft tradition but harnessed to explore current issues. A kind of Dogme approach to making contemporary art.   

In a broader perspective, Höskuldsson’s works and practice offer an alternative approach to engaging in our current times. It encourages an unhurried process and narrative, leaving space and pace for humanity to be absorbed and reflected in the work. The art of storytelling that makes our species unique.

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Loji Höskuldsson (b. 1987, Iceland) lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland. Recent solo and group exhibitions include 198 Days in Stockholm, Market Art Fair, V1 Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden, 2025; Preservation Season, Kadeau, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2025 (With Emma Kohlmann and Mads Bryld); At the End of the Road, Listasafn Samúel Jónsson Museum, Selárdalur, Iceland, 2024 (with Þorvaldur Jónsson); What I Gather, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023; Toast, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki, Finland, 2022 (with Karoliina Hellberg); Two Pots of Milk, Alþýðuhúsið, Siglufjörður, Iceland, 2022; Sveitin mín, Safnasafnið, Svalbarðseyri, Iceland, 2021 and Súper lókal, Hverfisgallerí, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2019. 

Thank you to Jóhanna Viborg, Jóhanna Erla Pálmadóttir, Esbjerg Art Museum, House of Finn Juhl, and Kvadrat for helping facilitate Höskuldsson’s playful vision.