Pure 24K Gold, Acrylic, Gouache, Print on Matte Canvas 60 x 84 in. / 152.4 x 213.4 cm Unique 2016
LINA IRIS VIKTOR
About the Artist
Lina Iris Viktor is a conceptual artist, performance artist, and painter. She lives and works between New York and London.
Raised in London to Liberian parents, she traveled extensively in her youth, also living in Johannesburg, South Africa for many years. The multi-disciplinary approach to her work, which weaves disparate materials and methods belonging both to contemporary and ancient art forms, calls into question the nature of time and being. Her works are a merging of photography, performance and abstract painting, along with the ancient practice of gilding with 24-karat gold to create increasingly dark canvases embedded with “layers of light” in the form of symbols and intricate patterns. Viktor regards these dark canvases to be “light-works”. Each provoke a philosophical commentary through material that at once addresses the infinite and the finite, immortality and mortality, the microcosm and macrocosm, in addition to the socio-political and historical preconceptions surrounding ‘blackness’ and its universal implications.
Viktor’s multi-disciplinary practice is informed by a background in film which she studied at Sarah Lawrence College, and her continued studies within photography & design at The School of Visual Arts, along with an education in performance arts during high school. Viktor creates her own mythology as a painter, sculptor, photographer, and performance artist.
Artist CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
· Black Exodus: Act I, Amar Gallery, London, United
Kingdom
2014
· Arcadia, Gallery 151, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
· Hopes Springing High: Gifts of African American Art, Crocker Museum, Sacramento, USA
2017
· In-Significations, The Cooper Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; National Theatre Exhibition Hall, Lagos; In-Significations, National Theatre Exhibition Hall, Lagos, Nigeria; In-significations, Wifredo Lam Centre for Contemporary Art, Havana, Cuba
2017
· Back Stories, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2016
· As The Cosmos Unfolds, The Cob Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2016
· Sisters of The Moon, Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, Louisville, Kentucky
2016
· Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life, Spelman Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
2016
· The Woven Arc, The Cooper Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2016
· Hyperion, New York, NY
2016
· Art of Jazz: Form, Performance, Notes, The Cooper Gallery & Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2014
· Intangible Beauty: Beautiful Women & The Endless Void, Biennials, Kasher Potamkin, New York, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
· 2017, On the Misconceptions of Blackness in Art and Painting with Pure Gold, Interview Short by Peter J. Rickards, The Root
· 2017, Lina Iris Viktor : As recommended by Architect David Adjaye, Wondereur Photo Documentary & Interview
· 2016, Afrofuturism: The Next Generation by Ruth LaFerla, The New York Times (December 14th, 2016)
· 2016, A Lesson in Formationism by Artistic duo Walter & Zoniel by Alexander Glover, i-D Art
· 2016, Reclaiming the Radical Power of Ornament in Art and Fashion by S Von Reynolds, i-D Think Piece
· 2016, On the Edgy of Blue Heaven by Rea Khoabane, The Times Art Section (South Africa)
· 2016, Art & Spirituality in The Digital Age by Milithusando Bongela, Mail & Guardian Arts Section
· 2016, Artists Dazzling Self-Portraits Explore the Cosmic Power of Gold by Priscilla Frank, The Huffington Post
· 2016, A creative conversation with Emma Gilhooly for CCQ Magazine, CCQ Art Journal / Issue 9
· 2016, 10 Female Artists of Color on the Rise by Jessica Stafford Davis, The Root
· 2016, Five Transcendental Young Black Artists in Contemporary Art by Christina Lee, Art Report Donations
· 2014, 30 Days 30 Artists, Visionaire
EDUCATION
· 2009 School Of Visual Arts
Continuing Education (Photography, Cinematography)
· 2006 Sarah Lawrence College
BA (Film History & Film Production)