National Gallery of Iceland

The National Gallery of Iceland, Listasafn Íslands, is the country's national art museum, and its main building stands on Fríkirkjuvegur on the eastern shore of Tjörnin, the lake in the centre of Reykjavik. The collection was founded in 1884, unusually in Copenhagen, by Björn Bjarnarson, and at first consisted mainly of works donated by Danish artists. It was later shown in the Parliament House and then in the National Museum building, before becoming an independent institution in 1961.

The museum moved into its present home in 1987. The main part of the building was put up in 1916 as a freezing plant, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, the architect who later designed Hallgrímskirkja, and an extension was added by Garðar Halldórsson. Today the collection numbers around 16,000 works, and its focus is Icelandic art. Exhibitions change through the year: in autumn 2026 the programme includes Kjarval in the East, devoted to the painter Jóhannes S. Kjarval, a show of Ukrainian icons across the centuries, and Veil, a video work by Sigurður Guðjónsson.

For visitors who have spent days looking at Iceland's scenery, the gallery offers a different view of the same mountains, lava fields and coastline, seen through the eyes of Icelandic artists over more than a century. It suits art lovers and anyone interested in Icelandic culture, and it is a calm, compact museum that works well on a grey or wet afternoon.

The gallery also runs the House of Collections, Safnahúsið, where the long-running exhibition Resistance presents treasures of Icelandic art, and the Einar Jónsson Museum, dedicated to the sculptor. The museum is open every day from 10:00 to 17:00, and the Kaktus Espressobar café in the Fríkirkjuvegur building is handy for a break. Allow around an hour to an hour and a half.

If you are planning to see several museums, it is worth checking whether a combined ticket or the Reykjavik City Card suits your plans, as prices for individual museums in the city add up quickly. The gallery's programme also includes family events and talks, which are announced on its website.

The building is a pleasant walk from almost anywhere in the centre, and the lakeside paths of Tjörnin run past it, with City Hall across the water and Laugavegur a few minutes away to the north. The Reykjavik Art Museum's Hafnarhús, the National Museum and Hallgrímskirkja can all be reached on foot from here in 15 minutes or less.