Rannva Kunoy Exhibition

Nathalie Karg

[Image: Rannva Kunoy "She" (2021) Pigments, acrylic, dispersion on Linen, 72 7/8 x 49 1/4 in.]

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Nathalie Karg Gallery presents the second solo exhibition by Faroese-born, London-based artist Rannva Kunoy. In eight large-scale paintings, Kunoy displays her hallmark painting technique through which the relationship between light, movement, and color become interdependent and highly sensitized.

Kunoy’s practice is distinguished by a visual effect through which color serves as a vehicle for light, a chemical process that she developed after many years of experimentation and attention on the properties of transparency and luminosity in paint. The numerous thin layers of pigments she meticulously applies begin to reflect light, rather than absorb it, and present an iridescent, ever-shifting surface rather than a composition of opaque, single-toned colors.

Deep purples and bright blues mutate into reflective grays and mint greens as one walks across the painting. In this way, depending on where the viewer is with respect to the painting, the time of day, and the way that light enters a room, Kunoy’s works offer numerous experiences in just one singular object. The light, shimmers, reflects, and glares, moving through the mark and gliding over the surface, yet is never captured within either.

The thin texture-less marks are sharp and appear hollowed out, it is difficult to decipher how it has been applied. The marks often juxtapose and layer abstract elements with fragments of imagery from a wide source, including art history. Yet it is done with an overall abstracted approach in which collections of unrelated cultural motifs and almost accidental visual information interplay amongst each other. The sporadically repeated stenciled forms appear almost molecularized within the dense yet intangible atmosphere of each painting. It is as though these marks float between the layers of Kunoy’s pigments. For both Kunoy and the viewer, these paintings serve as explorations of how the sensory intertwines with the psychological; paint and experience merge together.

Rannva Kunoy (b. 1975, Faroe Islands) is a painter who lives and works in London. Kunoy graduated from the Royal College of Art with a degree in fine art painting. Her work has been included in both solo and group exhibitions in locations such as Centre Pasqu’Art in Biel, Switzerland; Saatchi Gallery in London, United Kingdom; and Nordic House in Torshavn, Faroe Islands.