Nina Canell


Nina Canell is a sculpture and installation artist born in Växjö, Sweden and educated at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin, Ireland. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Work

Nina Canell's practice concerns the physical and chemical characteristics of materials and found objects as well as their metaphorical and indexical nature.
By placing material forms and immaterial forces into proximity, for example electrifying, heating or moistening wood, copper, plastic or glass, she creates works that embody an interchanging state, a process. Canell's sculptural practice concentrates on this transformative affect: materials and objects are either being animated by a process in her installations or have been the site of a process in that an encounter or traversal has taken place. Despite the articulation of the material phenomena, Canell's works are essentially of indexical nature as they open up a sense for the symbolic capacities of the objects by exploring the relationship between humans, objects and events. This understanding is formally supported by the works’ minimal installation within the space that devoid of any form of monumentality.
Canell has a preference for working with 'poor' materials, ranging from weathered wooden beams, threads, small branches, melon seeds and nails to wires, electric cables, copper pipes and glass jars.
She frequently collaborates with Robin Watkins.

Solo exhibitions

Collections