NATIONAL ART MUSEUM (LISTASAVN FØROYA)

An art museum with top-quality collections. The gallery, once privately owned, was enlarged with the participation of the Feringian authorities. The formidably designed rooms reflect the contemporary museums found in Scandinavia. The layout, materials and use of natural light are all designed to showcase the works in the collection, which comprises some 2,500 works, mainly paintings but also graphics, sculptures, installations and textiles, from the 1830s to the present day.

Mikines, who died in 1979, is a local artist who cannot be ignored. His canvases, which hint at a strong personality, are a moving rendering of the land, sea and colors of his country and its people. Almost figurative, with dark overtones, they abound in biblical scenes and scenes from everyday Faroese life: the famous dances and farandoles, the traditional hunting of pilot whales, tormented landscapes, and several portraits, some dating from the 1930s and 1940s.

Among the main contemporary works is The Depth of the Sea, by Tróndur Patursson. An immersive installation made of glass and mirrors: you'll have the sensation of floating in the middle of the sea. Optically, you can see 700 meters from top to bottom. Or Whale-War by Edward Fuglø. This monumental sculpture representing the body of a whale is made up of tens of thousands of black-painted toy soldiers (around 32,000!) and a sound installation. This is the artist's activist evocation of grindadráp, the traditional hunt debated in the Faroe Islands.

At the entrance to the museum, you'll find a cafeteria and a children's area with drawings and collages.