Nana Wolke
Nana Wolke (b. 1994, Ljubljana) is a London-based artist currently pursuing an MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths University.
For this online exhibition, the curator interviewed Wolke at her studio in Deptford and selected three paintings from her latest body of work: Tiny Threat (2021), Too Fast For Love (2021) and Showgirls (2021). The works are instantly striking due to their unique approach to figuration and their use of hunting red light.
The unusually low perspective situates the viewer at the point of view of a domestic animal. The metaphoric and popular connotations, as well as ambivalence of social constructs - domestic against wild - are called into question.
Many questions arise from Wolke’s peculiar settings and subjects. What are we looking at? Is this a sensual promise, or a trap? Who is really the prey here?
Wolke is interested in what is caught in the corner of the eye - what happens when nobody should be watching. She is currently “testing” the thin line between plastic reality - ‘authentic pretension’. Images that get deep-etched into our consciousness, and re-elaborated by our brains. Those generic fictions grasped from (cinematic) screens that get assimilated, shared, and fed to us as memories.
In this video-interview we are welcomed in Wolke’s studio on a Thursday afternoon. She answers questions regarding her practice, artistic process, and future plans.
Maria Valeria Biondo
Nana Wolke (b. 1994, Ljubljana) is an MFA student at Goldsmiths, University of London. She received her BFA with honors at the Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana and completed her last year of study at Academy for Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana through a study exchange at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig (class of Prof. Michael Riedel). Her work has been featured internationally, including AMU Gallery, Prague, CZ (2016); 31. Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, SI (2016); G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig, DE (2018); Kiribati National Museum and Cultural Centre, Tarawa, KI (2019); Winter Street Gallery, Edgartown, MA (2020); and Shrine Gallery, New York City, NY (2021) among others. She has been nominated for OHO Young Visual Arts Award (2018), Ljubljana, SI; HIX Award (2019), London, UK; and is a recipient of the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia’s scholarship (2019); and Ad Futura scholarship (2020). In 2021 her work will be featured amongst others at Proposition Studios and at Bangkok Biennial’s UK pavilion, all in London; as well as Vin Vin Gallery in Vienna, Austria.