Listvinnzlan: Echo

Listvinnzlan is an arts center and professional creative workspace in downtown Reykjavík, where disabled artists create and develop their artistic practice. Echo traces its roots to Selárdalur, where artists working at Listvinnzlan created works in dialogue with the artistic world of Samúel Jónsson. The exhibition was part of the Reykjavík Arts Festival programme in the summer of 2026. It has now travelled to Ásmundarsafn, where it enters into a new dialogue with the works of artist Ásmundur Sveinsson. New artworks and additional artists have also joined the exhibition. In Selárdalur, a powerful resonance emerged between the artists’ works and Samúel’s creations. Self-taught and working outside the mainstream art world, Samúel followed his own singular vision. His story remains deeply relevant today. Disabled artists possess distinctive and compelling artistic voices, yet they continue to face barriers within the art scene. At Ásmundarsafn, the conversation continues, now in close proximity to the works of Ásmundur, who likewise created a unique world where art, architecture and environment converge. The exhibition draws attention to diverse pathways into art and to artists who have developed their own visual languages and rightfully belong at the heart of contemporary artistic discourse. Here, contemporary art and history, different generations and diverse lived experiences meet in works that resonate with one another. Echo is therefore both a continuation and a new chapter: an exhibition born in dialogue with Samúel Jónsson, now finding a new resonance at Ásmundarsafn.