“Artist in Focus” is a new column that shines a light on individual artists by showcasing their portfolios and artworks, exploring their inspirations and personal journeys. As our team travels to various art fairs, festivals, art weeks, and biennales, we uncover emerging talents and share their stories, giving our readers an authentic glimpse into the artists who are shaping the contemporary art world today.
Nanna Kaiser (b. 1991) is an artist, living and working in Vienna, who, although working with textiles and materials, likes to see her works as paintings. In her work, she skins and peels layers – literally and metaphorically. One would call her a “trickster and obsessive hunter-gatherer”, stripping down a dusty material world. Kaiser’s art upsets conventions while being situated within an approach linked to the technique developed by Heidi Bucher in the 1970s of “skinning” walls and floors with liquid latex, imploding private domestic spaces. In Kaiser’s case, what was once an aristocratic dwelling, turned into a construction site, has slipped its way into the gallery. By producing abstract images with the parts of a household or objects and textiles found on the street, the artist engages with sculptural concerns, or vice versa, collapsing all distinctions between objecthood, surface, and optical perception. Through the insightful manner of looking at the spaces of inspiration, the audience is invited to dip in the pool of melancholia, observing how Kaiser’s art brings up capitalism’s psychological stains on these withered architectural skins, cracks, and tears.
Nanna Kaiser is represented by the Shore Gallery.
