Gudmundur Erro studied painting in Reykjavik and Oslo and the art of mosaics in Italy. His first exhibition took place in Florence in 1955.

Erro is considered one of the pioneers of the Narrative Figuration movement. But his extremely prolific work is both pop and baroque. By a (very) academic technique he mixes images from various sources. He thus elaborates an infinitely complex narrative and gives the viewer a freedom of interpretation.
The collages that are the preparatory stage of his paintings combine comic strip characters with politicians, tributes to great painters to antique frescoes, current photos to sociological symbols ...
His style cannot be considered as belonging to Surrealism to Hyperrealism or even to Realism Social ... but his work brings together elements of each of these artistic movements.

By a "visual discourse" Erro tries to surprise his audience, to shock his sensitivity.
In series, he deals with various themes such as politics (the war in Iraq, the Chinese cycles) religion, eroticism ... He denounces the absurdity of contemporary society.
His work takes place in three stages. The first and perpetual step is to accumulate documents and cut out image fragments. Then he assembles them by themes and makes collages. These are transposed on a support often via an enlarging process (reproduction by freehand drawing or by means of a periscope or projector).

Finally Erro postpones the drawing on a canvas. He is very demanding as to the quality of the canvas and the frame. He does not attach himself to any particular canvas format and with a few exceptions, he tends his paintings himself.
Erro is an internationally renowned artist. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Europe, Iceland, the United States, Israel and in particular a major retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2010: "Erro fifty years of collage".