Snorri Asmundsson

Snorri Ásmundsson was born in Akureyri, Iceland, in 1966 and began his education in the arts early, at the Akureyri School of Visual Arts. Often called the “enfant terrible” of the Icelandic art scene, he takes on social taboos such as politics and religion, and is best known for performances including his 2004 run for the Icelandic presidency, his auto-crucifixion and his sale of indulgence letters.

Many see him as a living “social sculpture”; a retrospective at the Duus Museum described him as “the most grandiose living work of art in Icelandic art history.” Painting nonetheless remains central: his first exhibition, in 1996, showed only paintings. He ran his own gallery on Akureyri’s Artists’ Way from 1994 to 1997, has lived in Paris, Vienna, Mexico and Los Angeles, and returned to Akureyri in 2017.