Skaftfell is pleased to announce the opening of the new exhibition Crying Pink curated by Claire Puagam. Opening at Skaftfell Gallery on Friday 7th of November at 5pm.
Crying Pink is a group exhibition that challenges pink as a gender symbol. The exhibition features works by contemporary artists Dýrfinna Benita Basalan (IS), Hélène Hulak (FR) and drag queen Gógó Starr (IS), who critically and playfully address symbols of patriarchy and popular culture. Through distorted and exaggerated representations of cultural phenomena, the artists communicate both political perspectives and personal narratives in order to create powerful and revolutionary art.
Hélène Hulak, born in 1990, is a French artist based between Lyon and Paris.Her installations merge painting, sculpture, and textiles, subverting capitalist female imagery with a bold, grotesque aesthetic—bright colors, monstrous silhouettes, and oversized bodies. She reinterprets craft techniques like quilting and knitting, altering their scale and function, and draws from popular culture to create transformative images. By pushing codes to extremes, she challenges gender and environmental relationships. Her work has been exhibited at the 68th Salon de Montrouge, macLYON, Magasins Généraux, KOMMET, and La Villette’s 100% L’Expo (2023), as well as at international festivals like Lokart (Hungary) and Prague Art Week (Czechia).
Gógó Starr is Iceland’s only full-time drag queen and entertainer, the Drag Queen of Iceland 2015 and the country's brightest boylesque starr. Producer and co-founder of Drag-Súgur, Iceland's biggest drag variety show, Gógó has toured the U.S. and Europe with great success. But whether it is performing, producing or generally sharing their art with the world, Gógó always strives to do things unapologetically queer, and use their platform to uplift queer artists. An amazingly fierce, funny and fabulous performer, Gógó effortlessly mixes drag and burlesque for in the most bootyful ways - Classy, sassy and gassy!
Dýrfinna Benita Basalan (b. 1992) is an Icelandic–Filipino artist and performer. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2018 and co-founded the collective Lucky 3, awarded the Icelandic Art Center’s Motivational Award (2022) for PUTI. Her practice spans large-scale mixed-media drawings, sculptures, and installations exploring childhood, systemic structures, and collective experience. Her debut solo show, Chronic Pain – Langavitleysan (Reykjavík Art Museum, 2023), led to acquisitions by the Reykjavík Art Museum and The Living Art Museum. As Countess Malaise, she performs across Europe’s underground scene, releasing two albums since 2019, with her upcoming EP Frelsi due in 2025.
The exhibition Crying Pink is supported by the Icelandic Art Fund.
