In this paper we consider how state-led industrial development in alliance with multinational corporate capitalism at the periphery of Europe in the early 2000s was met in the work of several Icelandic artists at the time. We attempt this analysis through an unorthodox application of Luc Boltanski’s and Eve Chiapello’s theorisation of the artistic critique of capitalism while highlighting its entanglement with Romantic nationalism, Boltanski’s and Chiapello’s understanding of the ecological critique and what Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre have since termed the economy of enrichment. What transpires from our discussion is a dynamic spectrum of artistic positions, prompted by alternative visions of economic development in conjunction with nature-centred nationalism that nuance and problematise Boltanski’s and Chiapello’s fundamental assertions about the artistic critique. In addition to shedding light on recent cases of artistic critique in a particular geopolitical context we belief that our identification of its entanglement with Romantic nationalism is an original contribution to the reception of Boltanski’s and Chipaello’s work, that is not only pertinent for post-colonial national contexts such as Iceland but emphasises the need for similar readings in other geopolitical settings. Furthermore, our synthesis of their work with the later work of Boltanski and Esquerre is fruitful for our reading of the Icelandic case and suggests that further dialectical inquiry into Boltanski’s earlier work with Chiapello and later work with Esquerre might prove pertinent for the discussion of ecologically-engaged artistic critiques of capitalism in the 21st century.