Juan turns infrastructure into works of art

Street art that pleases the eye!

A brand new viking, a refrigerator and a blue opal candy package now adorn the town of Hafnarfjörður. The Spanish artist Juan is currently working on turning electrical boxes and sewer valves into works of art. This is not the first time Juan has worked with the town, but the third. He painted the mural at Strandgata 4 in the summer of 2022 and the library of Hafnarfjörður on its 100th anniversary.

“Indeed, these are new and beautiful works that turn important infrastructure into works of art,” says Juan. “We have chosen 10-11 (convenient store) things that I then turn into things related to Iceland and its culture, just like the blue opal pack, the fridge and the viking. It’s funny, because the artworks play an important role in society,” he says. He sees the work as an eye-trick, because the mind is now playing with this important infrastructure instead of dismissing it.

Summer is the time for creation

Juan who runs the Instagram page Juan Pictures Art. He says that it takes the least amount of time to actually paint the pieces, but the most amount of time goes into letting the mind run freely and landing on the right idea. “The most fun thing about the project is the brainstorming phase, looking at things and thinking about how to realize them. Sometimes the idea comes quickly, but then there are other ideas that take a long time,” he says.

Juan is from Valencia in Spain but has lived in Iceland for eight years. “I didn’t know anything about Iceland until I visited the country. I thought it was one big chunk of ice. But then I got the opportunity to create art here, and three days after I finished that project, I had another one,” Juan says. “Then I learned that Icelanders like to perform in the summer. There’s no point in waiting. That is one of the great things about the Icelandic people.”

Loves the Icelandic weather

Juan loves the Icelandic summer. The weather, the endless daylight. “Temperatures above 35 degrees should be banned,” he says and laughs. “But I love 10-15 degrees. That’s my comfort heat. And the daylight here in the summer is great for creativity. You can paint late into the night and if it’s cloudy, the light is never better.”

Juan has been painting since he was a child. He also studied art in Spain, but his art career took off when he moved to Iceland. “That’s when the type of art I wanted to create was born.”

As mentioned before, this is the third time that Juan has worked with Hafnarfjörður. “It’s always great to work with the town. I was fascinated when I saw how many sculptures there are in town and that he had a website with all his work, that can be accessed with a QR code”

• A map and a list of public artworks in Hafnarfjörður can be found on the webpage: utilistaverk.hafnarborg.is

Indeed, art lives in Hafnarfjörður!