Closed
22.3 – 22.4 2017
Nico Krijno:The Fluid Right Edge
3–5 Swallow St
Nico Krijno:The Fluid Right Edge
22.03 – 22.04.2017
Closed
Hours
Monday to Saturday
10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Gallery
3–5 Swallow St
London
W1B 4DE
Playdough and Bottles, 2016. Nico Krijno
Potato Palm in Full Sun, 2016. Nico Krijno
The Fluid Right Edge is the first UK solo exhibition of South African photographer, Nico Krijno. The exhibition showcases 21 photographs, including new works from his ongoing series New Gestures and Generator, illustrating Krijno’s playful concern with the deconstruction of the still life genre and the interplay of contrasting images and textures, volume and form.
Potato Palm in Full Sun, 2016. Nico Krijno
The subjects of Krijno’s still-lifes are often temporary, unstable constructions, made of overlooked or ephemeral objects. These structures are created only to be photographed; often toppling or falling to pieces the moment the shutter clicks. His re-evaluation and playful subversion of the tableau tradition continues throughout the works in the exhibition, shown in his use of disposable materials, such as wooden veneer, bungee cords and plastic washing baskets and brooms.
Photographed in Krijno’s studio, these modern still lifes are subsequently digitally reworked. Krijno is especially interested in the transformative power of the photograph to flatten space and confuse perspective, and he utilises digital manipulation to heighten these factors. Component parts are spliced together in Photoshop, scale is altered, backgrounds cut up and reassembled to create foreground details, and negative spaces made entirely solid.
Highlights
3
Babel, 2016. Nico Krijno
Zigzag, 2016. Nico Krijno
Flowers From My Brother, 2016. Nico Krijno
B. South Africa 1981
Biography
Nico Krijno’s works primarily deal with process and the relationship between photography and performance. Krijno frequently works in the genre of still life, establishing an exciting new visual language for the genre relevant for the information age. In his works, the visual tropes of the still-life genre are deconstructed and pieced back together in unexpected and witty ways. Krijno’s playful re-evaluation of the tableau tradition is a theme that continues throughout his works, particularly in his reframing of disposable materials, such as wooden veneer, bungee cords, plastic washing baskets and brooms. The accoutrements of daily life he uses, often mundane or kitsch, give a wry nod to the banality and increasing homogeneity of our modern constructed world.
The subjects of Krijno’s modern still lifes are often temporary, unstable constructions, made of primarily overlooked or disposable objects. They are structures created only to be photographed; often toppling or falling to pieces the moment the shutter clicks. Krijno describes the process of photographing these ephemeral structures as a private physical performance, with the camera being the audience. Photographed in Krijno’s studio, his still lifes are subsequently digitally re-worked. Krijno is particularly interested in the transformative power of the photograph to flatten space and confuse perspective, and uses digital manipulation to heighten these factors. Component parts are spliced together in Photoshop, scale is altered, and negative spaces made entirely solid. His ongoing exploration of illusion, both of pictorial surface and material, reveal the artist’s deeper interest in photographic truthfulness. His digital alterations unfix the picture plane, referencing the instability of truthfulness as a concept in the age of the Internet.
Nico Krijno was born in 1981 in South Africa. His limited-edition book Synonym Study was shortlisted for the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation Awards First Photobook Prize in 2014. Nico Krijno’s work has been included in over 20 exhibitions across Europe, South Africa and the US. He was nominated for the Paul Huf Award in 2015 and selected as a Foam Talent in 2016.
Krijno lives and works in South Africa.