Lina Iris Viktor is a Liberian-British multidisciplinary artist who combines ancient and contemporary art forms to tell a unique story and create a link between a past that is almost lost in view, an extensive present while envisioning the different possibilities of the future.
Viktor is heavily influenced by her education in performance arts and experience in film. Her practice involves painting, sculpture, photography, water-gilding with 24-carat gold, and performance in her work. Viktor’s art explores both mortal and divine realms. In her recent pieces, she uses materials such as gold, black marble, and volcanic rock that have deep roots in the earth, to create an intangible, timeless quality that is both personal and universal.
Viktor uses black in her work as both a material and a color that holds a central position as the fundamental source of life. Her use of black is intended to provoke and challenge socio-political and historical assumptions about “blackness” and its implications on a universal level.
Her installations generally reflect her fascination with the relationship architecture and object materiality has with the spaces they occupy. Her work is characterized by an archaeological aesthetic that is influenced by various traditions, including West African sculpture, ancient Egyptian iconography, classical astronomy, and European portraiture. Through these influences, Viktor’s practice explores both mortal and divine realms.
Overall, Lina Iris Viktor is a talented artist who is pushing the boundaries of contemporary art. Her exploration of timelessness that is both intimate and tangible with color, pattern, and symbolism makes her work intriguing.
Lina Iris Viktor obtained a BA in film from Sarah Lawrence College, after which she continued her education in photography at The School of Visual Arts in New York. Her art has been showcased in solo exhibitions at various institutions, she has also been featured in group exhibitions at prestigious institutions. Viktor’s art is part of collections in institutions such as the National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, Hessel Museum of Art in Annandale-on-Hudson, North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, and Crocker Museum of Fine Art in Sacramento.
