Episode 231

Ep.231 Lina Iris Viktor is a Liberian-British multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Italy. Influenced by architecture, archaeology, West African sculptural traditions, ancient Egyptian iconography, classical astronomy and European portraiture, her paintings, sculptures, performances, photography and water-gilding with 24-carat gold produce a charged materiality that address philosophical ideas of the finite and the infinite, the microcosm and macrocosm, evanescence and eternity. Her use of gold, marble, bronze, wood and volcanic rock establish an intimate and intangible timelessness whilst her focus on black as ‘materia prima’ challenges the sociopolitical and historical preconceptions surrounding ‘blackness’ and its universal implications. By interweaving disparate materials, methods and visual lexicons associated with contemporary and ancient art forms, Viktor authors an idiosyncratic mythology that threads through deep time, knitting together a diasporic past with an expansive present in order to divine future imaginaries.

Viktor received her BA in film at Sarah Lawrence College and studied photography at The School of Visual Arts in New York. Solo exhibitions include Sir John Soane’s Museum, London (2024); Fotografiska Museum of Photography, Stockholm & Tallinn (2020); Autograph, London (2019); and New Orleans Museum of Art (2018), among others. Group exhibitions include the Museum of the African Diaspora [MoAD], San Francisco (2024); Hayward Gallery, London (2022); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (2020); Somerset House, London (2019); Ford Foundation, New York (2019); Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento (2018); Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville (2016); Spelman Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta (2016); and Cooper Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge (2016).

Sir John Soane Museum, Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings: https://www.soane.org/exhibitions/lina-iris-viktor-mythic-time-tens-thousands-rememberings

Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy:

https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/liberatory-living

Pilar Corrias, Solar Angels & Lunar Lords: https://www.pilarcorrias.com/exhibitions/419-lina-iris-viktor-solar-angels-lunar-lords/

Hayward Gallery, In the Black Fantastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1ZHUFirMRM&ab_channel=SouthbankCentre

New Orleans Museum of Art, A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred. https://noma.org/exhibitions/lina-iris-viktor-a-haven-a-hell-a-dream-deferred/

Fotografiska Stockholm, Dark Testament: https://stockholm.fotografiska.com/en/exhibitions/lina-iris-viktor

Autograph, Some Are Born To Endless Night — Dark Matter: https://autograph.org.uk/online-image-galleries/lina-iris-viktor-some-are-born-to-endless-night-dark-matter-exhibition-highlights

Elephant, Lina Iris Viktor’s Distinct Mythology- A Photo Diary From The Artist’s Home on the Amalfi Coast: https://elephant.art/lina-iris-viktors-distinct-mythology-a-photo-diary-from-the-artists-home-on-the-amalfi-coast/

Apollo, Lina Iris Viktor strikes gold at the Soane Museum: https://www.apollo-magazine.com/lina-iris-viktor-soane-museum-review/

AnOther, Lina Iris Viktor, the Artist Redefining the Sir John Soane Museum’s Legacy: https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/15758/lina-iris-viktor-interview-mythic-time-sir-john-soane-museum-exhibition

Artnet, ‘I’m Willing to Take That Risk Now’: Why Lina Iris Viktor, Famed for Her Gold-Leafed Self-Portraits, Is Embracing Abstraction: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/lina-iris-viktor-2379189

British Vogue, Lina Iris Viktor Brings Her Mythic Imaginings To Sir John Soane’s Museum: https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/lina-iris-viktor-sir-john-soane

Something Curated, Interview: Lina Iris Viktor On The Libyan Sibyl & Beauty As A Tool For Truth: https://somethingcurated.com/2023/03/21/interview-lina-iris-viktor-on-the-libyan-sibyl-beauty-as-a-tool-for-truth/

The Art Newspaper, A brush with… Lina Iris Viktor: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/08/03/a-brush-with-lina-iris-viktor

New York Times, Stepping Into the Expansive Worlds of Black Imagination: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/arts/design/in-the-black-fantastic-london.html

Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings, installation view, 2024
Courtesy of the artist and Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
Photography: Gareth Gardner