Estonian-born, New York-based artist Jaanika Peerna has had her work exhibited in Italy for the first time.
For the exhibition in Ravenna, Peerna transformed the three large gallery spaces into an all-encompassing site-specific installation using large-scale graphite drawings on mylar and video projections.
The theme of the exhibition is “advances and retreats” (“avanzare e arretrare” in Italian). “At times we advance and at times we retreat, and most of the time it is hard to tell which,” Peerna said of her exhibition.
According to Fiona Robinson, a British art critic, Peerna’s work criss-crosses the boundaries of drawing, light installation, performance, sculpture and video. “These disparate disciplines are drawn together, meshed inextricably in a way that makes them the work of one artist,” Robinson described Peerna’s exhibition. “Line, curved or straight, is an overriding element. It loops, flows, curves, folds back on itself, with an elegance and grace.”
Peerna has been living and working in New York since 1998, but is currently spending a year in Berlin. She has exhibited her work in New York as well as in Paris, Tallinn, Lisbon, Sofia, Dubai, Honolulu, Berlin Rome and Novosibirsk. In addition to private collections, her work was recently acquired by Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France. In the United States, it is represented by Masters Projects in New York and ARC Fine Art in Connecticut.
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Jaanika Peerna’s exhibition at Ninapì – Nesting Art Gallery, Ravenna, Italy is open until 15 March.
“Appreciating the shades of grey” – read our longer feature with Jaanika Peerna here.
