In his work from the 80s Gunnar Örn focused on nature and its connection to the Icelandic folk tradition. Örn's work of this period is meditative and filled with dream-like images recalling a distant, mythological past. With his deft brushwork and subtle use of color, Örn proves himself a master of figurative and spiritually charged painting. In the 1990s, Örn's work developed a more abstract and ethereal quality, in which such figures and spirits become partly hidden in the landscape and incorporated into stones and the air, perhaps referring to Icelandic medieval legend. Gunnar Örn lived in Kambur, Iceland, in close contact with the landscape and wildlife that inspired his work so strongly.

Gunnar Örn, one of Iceland's best-known artists, died on March 28, 2008. Örn represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 1989, and at the São Paulo Bienal in 1985. His works may be found in public collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, The Seibu Museum, Tokyo, The Moderna Museet and the National Gallery of Sweden, Stockholm. Gunnar Örn also had solo exhibitions at Moeller Fine Art, New York in 1985 and 1989.