Chromatically muted but sweet-looking paintings and works on paper may not immediately suggest the imminent toppling of patriarchal society, but such is the central conceit of Gudmundur Thoroddsen. Characterizing our present moment as an explicitly gendered endgame in which “men in general are finding themselves in a position unfamiliar to them and everything is up in the air,” the Icelandic artist revels in picturing a chaotic world of masculine abandon that appears playful and alarming in equal measure. It’s often hard to tell whether the figures that cavort across his canvases are having a blast or scattering in desperation.
The bearded sages, primitive nudes and wayward sportsmen of works such as Giants at the Museum and Friday Afternoon are complemented by Thoroddsen’s lively ceramics, which, while not front and center here, effectively echo the forms and ideas of the two-dimensional works with distinctly organic shapes, suggesting the relics of a macho civilization in terminal decline. Complex—and comical—vessels such as Nosy Pick and Nude Boy are set off nicely by smaller, simpler works like Radiant Gem I and II, all of them using notably superior glazes typical for this artist who is adept at working in several mediums.