Nana Wolke

Interviews by Brainard Carey

Nana Wolke by Inna Svyatsky / installshots.art Nana Wolke explores the nature of perception, focusing her attention on modes of apprehension of space and time. Her series of works usually begins on film-like sets, where the artist records the unfolding of staged situations and improvised actions occurring in spaces spanning across social hierarchy. Wolke proceeds to assemble and edit both original and found footage to create distinctly monochromatic visual atmospheres and rhythms that she then translates into painting and sound installations. Using commonplace lighting to model space and generate the grain, textures and slippages of her images and sequences, Wolke utilizes a variety of devices chosen as much for their technical properties as for their social significance – e.g. CCTV equipment, home video camcorders, inventory cameras, intercom systems, etc. Considering the multiple viewpoints from which an action can be witnessed, Wolke’s work conjures a tension between observation and control, often inviting viewers to navigate environments that interrogate notions of access and inclusion – whether for economic, social, or security purposes. In so doing, Wolke reflects upon the conflation of desire and shame in contemporary modes of production and consumption of images and visual culture. By constantly confronting the logic of live actions, cinema, and paint, Wolke ultimately seeks to analyze the progressive inextricability between actual and artificial realities. Wolke holds an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. Solo exhibitions include Breed at Management, New York; Wanda’s at NiCOLETTi, London; High Seat at Castor Gallery, London; 4:28 - 5:28 am at VIN VIN, Vienna; and Some Girls Wander by Mistake at Fondazione Coppola, Vicenza. Group exhibitions include Over you/you at the 31. Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana; Daddy at G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig; Painters Painting Painters: A Study of Muses, Friends, and Companions at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas; Love is the Devil: Studies after Francis Bacon at Marlborough, London; and No Angels at Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin among others. Wolke was also selected for the 2021 cohort of Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Nana Wolke 00:02:26,417 - - > 00:02:29,010 (Empire), 2023 Oil, sand, and iron dust on linen 70 7/8 x 94 1/2 inches / 180 x 240 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Management, New York. Photography by installshots.art Nana Wolke 00:00:00,000 - - > 01:36:06,960 (It’s good enough for Nancy. It’s good enough for Nancy), 2024 Oil on linen 24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.5 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Management, New York. Photography by installshots.art Nana Wolke, 02:10:34,195 - - > 02:18:06,207, (Sleeping pills, sneakers, turtleneck, power cord), 2024, Oil and construction sand on linen, 24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.5 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Management, New York. Photography by installshots.art