Lina Iris Viktor

Last updated

Lina Iris Viktor
Born1987
United Kingdom
Notable workA Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred
Movement
Website https://www.linaviktor.com/

Lina Iris Viktor (born 1987) [1] is a New York-based British-Liberian visual artist who is known her paintings, sculptures, photographs, and performance art. [2] Viktor combines ancient and modern art forms to create multimedia paintings. [2] She does this by combing an ancient technique called gilding with photography and painting to create “symbols and intricate patterns." [2] She overlays 24-karat gold over dark canvases to create works with “layers of light”. [2] Allison K. Young in Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred says that these multimedia paintings suggest “the socio-political and historical preconceptions surrounding ‘blackness’ and its universal implications”. [2] The New York Times described her paintings as "queenly self-portraits with a futuristic edge". [3]

Contents

Biography

Lina Iris Viktor was born in 1987 in the U.K. to parents from Liberia, West Africa. [1] Her parents left Liberia forcibly because there was a civil war going on in the 1980s, which is why they moved to the U.K. [4] She traveled frequently as a child and for numerous years lived in Johannesburg, South Africa. [2] She studied film at Sarah Lawrence College and photography and design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. [5] Lina Iris Viktor in 2016 was thinking about creating artwork that corresponds to the history of Liberia, but it took around a year for her to articulate this concept because of how “complex and misunderstood” Liberia is. [2] In 2017, The New Orleans Museum of Art contacted Viktor for a solo show exhibition that “speaks to interconnected histories of West Africa and the American South”. [2] Viktor’s solo exhibition is titled A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred. [2] In an Interview with Ekow Eshun, he talks about inviting different artists including Lina Iris Viktor in 2022 to be a part of a show titled The Black Fantastic located at the Hayward Gallery in London. [6] Eshun in this interview said that Viktor came to visit the Hayward Gallery and was immediately inspired to create "two new sculptural works and three new paintings for the show". [6]

In 2018, Viktor was involved in a legal dispute with Kendrick Lamar involving appropriation of her imagery for the video for "All the Stars" by SZA and Lamar. The dispute was settled. [7] [8]

She is represented by Pilar Corrias, London. [9]

Art

Viktor integrates painting, sculpture, photography, sculpture, and gilding to portray the history of Liberia while also investigating "the relationship between art, prophecy, and spiritual belief". [10] Viktor is inspired by source imagery including "astronomy, Aboriginal dream paintings, African textiles, and West and Central African myth and cosmology". [11] Specifically in her series A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred she discusses the "mythic history" of Liberia. [10] In a book titled Africa State of Mind Ekow Eshun says Viktor "knits together events and images both factual and fantastical, [and] conjures Liberia as an uneasy utopia, both a paradise lost and cautionary tale of pathology of colonization". [10] In Viktor's multi media paintings the central figure pay homage to the figure of Libyan Sibyl. [10] The Libyan Sibyl is a classical mythological figure that can depict the future. [10] The Libyan Sibyl figure is also "used as a common motif in the art and literature of the American abolitionist movement". [10] Viktor uses iconography from Liberia and the United States in hopes to emphasize "the depth and complexity of African history and experience". [10]

Notable works

A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred Series

In this series Viktor creates mixed media paintings to depict the history of Liberia. [2] Throughout the series she incorporates bold red lines to mimic "tropical foliage" and geometric patterns to imitate "the crimson stripes of the Liberia's flag". [2] She uses colors red, white, and blue "to invoke the shared national iconography of both Liberia and the United States". [2] Viktor says she wants to create a different perspective on "lost narratives" that connect the United States to Liberia. [2] The central figure in these paintings represent the Libyan Sibyl, and this figure is wearing "patterns of Dutch Wax fabrics". [2] The title of this series is inspired by Montage of a Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes. [2] The phrase "A Dream Deferred" is supposed to represent "the unrealized dreams and broken promises that punctuate Black American experience". [2] Viktor hopes that this series educates others about the misconceptions of Liberia and the importance of the African Diaspora and its cultural history. [2]

Third

This is part of the A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred Series and depicts a Libyan Sibyl "beside Liberia's flag, as if posing for a formal portrait". [2] Viktor experiments with portraiture and uses "uses textile patterns as backdrops" and uses similar photographic compositions from West African photographers like Oumar Ka, Seydou Keita, Malick Sidibe, and Mamma Casset. [2]

Fourth

This is part of the A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred Series and illustrates a Libyan Sibyl figure holding a book in her left hand. [2] The book, the robe, and the figures' posture are iconographic elements that pay tribute to the mosaic floor in the Siena Cathedral titled Sibylla Lybica. [2]

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

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References

  1. 1 2 Thackara, Tess (December 4, 2018). "Everything This Young Artist Touches Turns to Gold". Artsy . Archived from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Viktor, Lina Iris (2019). Young, Allison K. (ed.). Lina Iris Viktor - A haven. A hell. A dream deferred. Milano: Skira. ISBN   978-88-572-3985-9.
  3. ↑ La Ferla, Ruth (December 12, 2016). "Afrofuturism: The Next Generation". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017.
  4. ↑ Eshun, Ekow (2020). "The Black Fantastic". Aperture (241): 112–119. ISSN   0003-6420.
  5. ↑ Copley, Jennifer (September 24, 2018). "This Liberian-British Painter Is Fixing The Art World's Historical Gaps Using 24K Gold". Harper's Bazaar Arabia . Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Edwards, Caroline (2023). "Reflecting on the Black Fantastic: An Interview with Ekow Eshun". Dagenham: Science Fiction Foundation. 52 (145): 64–79.
  7. ↑ Harris, Gareth (December 30, 2018). "Artist Lina Iris Viktor and rapper Kendrick Lamar resolve Black Panther legal dispute". The Art Newspaper . Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  8. ↑ Cascone, Sarah; Goldstein, Andrew (March 9, 2018). "Rising Star Lina Iris Viktor Proves to Be More Than Just a Cause Celebre at the Armory Show". Artnet News . Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  9. ↑ Westall, Mark (December 15, 2022). "Pilar Corrias now represent Lina Iris Viktor". FAD Magazine. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Eshun, Ekow (2020). Africa state of mind. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson. ISBN   978-0-500-54516-4.
  11. ↑ Rugoff, Ralph; Eshun, Ekow; Martin, Kameelah L.; Commander, Michelle D.; Hayward Gallery, eds. (2022). In the Black fantastic. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-04725-8. OCLC   1289253810.
  12. ↑ Pogrebin, Robin (February 11, 2018). "Artist Says Kendrick Lamar Video for 'Black Panther' Song Stole Her Work". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  13. ↑ Wagenknecht, Addie (May 7, 2018). "Mariane Ibrahim Changes The Art World One Armory Show At A Time". Forbes . Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred". New Orleans Museum of Art. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  15. ↑ Robinson, Shantay (November 11, 2016). "Review: "Africa Forecast" shows how convention inspires Black women's spirit". ArtsATL. Archived from the original on November 12, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  16. ↑ Amkpa, Awam (2018). "Resignifications 2018". Villa La Pietra . Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  17. ↑ "Hopes Springing High". Crocker Art Museum . 2018. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  18. ↑ Thompson, Jessie (September 11, 2019). "Lina Iris Viktor on breaking the rules around painting with black". Evening Standard. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  19. ↑ Jansen, Charlotte (August 4, 2022). "Stepping Into the Expansive Worlds of Black Imagination". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 7, 2023.

Further reading


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