Lina Iris Viktor

Lina Iris Viktor
Born	1987 United Kingdom
Notable work	A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred
Movement	Afrofuturism Africanfuturism
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]

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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 apart 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]

Exhibitions

2014: Arcadia, Gallery 151, New York, NY^[2]
2014: Intangible Beauty: Beautiful Women and The Endless Void, Kasher Potamkin, New York, New York.^[2]
2016: Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia^[12]
2016: As The Cosmos Unfolds, The Cob Gallery, London, United Kingdom.^[2]
2016: Sisters of The Moon, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, Kentucky.^[2]
2016: The Woven Arc, The Cooper Gallery Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[2]
2016: Art of Jazz: Form, Performance, Notes, The Cooper Gallery and Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[2]
2017: Black Exodus: Act I — Materia Prima, Amar Gallery, London, United Kingdom^[13]
2017: Lines, Motions, and Rituals, Magnan Metz, New York, New York.^[2]
2017: Back Stories, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle, Washington.^[2]
2018: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana^[14]
2018: The Black Ark, The Armory Show | Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, New York, New York^[15]
2018: Re-Significations: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings, Zisa Zona Arti Contemporanee (ZAC) Manifesta European Contemporary Art Biennial 12, Palermo, Italy^[16]
2018: The Artsy Vanguard, Dior and Bergdorf Goodman, New York, New York.^[2]
2018: Hopes Springing High — Gifts Of Art By African American Artists, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA^[17]
2019: Some Are Born To Endless Night — Dark Matter, Autograph ABP, London^[18]
2022: In the Black Fantastic, Hayward Gallery, London^[19]

References

^ ^a ^b 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r 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.
^ 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.
^ Eshun, Ekow (2020). "The Black Fantastic". Aperture (241): 112–119. ISSN 0003-6420.
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b Edwards, Caroline (2023). "Reflecting on the Black Fantastic: An Interview with Ekow Eshun". Dagenham: Science Fiction Foundation. 52 (145): 64–79.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ Westall, Mark (December 15, 2022). "Pilar Corrias now represent Lina Iris Viktor". FAD Magazine. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Eshun, Ekow (2020). Africa state of mind. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-54516-4.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ "Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred". New Orleans Museum of Art. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
^ 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.
^ Amkpa, Awam (2018). "Resignifications 2018". Villa La Pietra. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
^ "Hopes Springing High". Crocker Art Museum. 2018. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
^ Thompson, Jessie (September 11, 2019). "Lina Iris Viktor on breaking the rules around painting with black". Evening Standard. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
^ Jansen, Charlotte (August 4, 2022). "Stepping Into the Expansive Worlds of Black Imagination". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 7, 2023.