Peruse some of the extraordinary work being produced by one of Tasmania's most prolific painters.
Displaced Persons built on Nina's last two exhibitions, Auslander and Dunkel und Hell. It continues her exploration into the matriarchal, general stories of Grandmother's life in the Ukraine and Austria during and after World War Two.
'My paintings are based mostly on stories that I gleaned from my Grandmother years ago. I use these stories as a vehicle to explore and to try and understand the loss in my maternal line; the loss of family and place, culture and the trauma of displacement. And as always I endeavour through my artwork to honour the lives lived before me, to uphold and respect their incredible survival.'
Oil on Board with etched mirror
90 x 86cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board
110 x 138cm
$950
FOR SALE
Oil on Board
95 x 133cm
$1 000
SOLD
Oil on Board
118 x 115cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board
112 x 118cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board
118 x 120 cm
$1 000
SOLD
Oil on Board
70.5 x 110cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board with etched mirror
76 x 66cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board
90 x 140cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board
112 x 90cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on Board
77 x 144cm
$1 000
FOR SALE
This new series of paintings by Nina is dedicated to those ancestors and family that came before her and it is in honour of the lives they lived and the stories that have been handed down.
Dunkel und Hell was exhibited at Sidespace Gallery from Friday 21 August 2015 for two weeks.
Oil on board
97 x 55 cm
$600
SOLD
Oil on board
160 x 82 cm
$800
SOLD
Oil on board
55 x 140 cm
SOLD
Oil on board
92 x 61 cm
SOLD
Oil on board
122 x 92 cm
SOLD
Oil on board
147 cm x 92 cm
SOLD
Oil on board
55 x 140 cm
SOLD
Oil on paper
117 x 100 cm
SOLD
Oil on board
120 x 108 cm
SOLD
Oil on board
275 x 180 cm
$1 500
FOR SALE
Oil on board
99 x 68 cm
SOLD
Oil on board, 2015
120 x 69 cm
SOLD
il on board
122 x 92 cm
SOLD
il on board
67 x 36 cm
SOLD
Auslander was the culmination of two years work, exploring the curious childhood stories and characters that were created by Nina's grandmother. The characters are whimsical, yet there is a darkness about these works that comes from a history of war, famine and tragedy. In this exhibition Nina Keri explored the emotional world of her grandmother's life in the Ukraine during the Second World War.
“When people experience trauma, in my family’s case the trauma of war, there is not always a space to heal or even think upon the experiences. Efforts go into surviving. Years pass and the experiences are covered by layers of living. But sometimes stories are told, remembered, passed on."
"My paintings feature two of my grandmother's pets, Svyinka the pig and Bobik the dog. I have listened to stories about them since I was a child. In my work they take on human qualities, which enables them to enter the human world of that time. And some humans I paint take on the visage of animals. Some paintings are like snapshots, others are created with many layers of generational emotion. My grandmother's stories are like a frayed rope linking my grandmother, my mother and me. When I paint I go to the place of the stories, they allow me access to a fairytale-like world full of extremes of good and evil. I use the stories and characters to tell of deeper emotions and experiences that have laid dormant in my maternal line. In doing so I hope to bring honour and an acknowledgment to the lives that came before mine”.
The Auslander Exhibition opened in early 2014 at the Sidespace Gallery in the Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania. It was the debut solo exhibition for Nina, who was overwhelmed by the response to her work. Most of the paintings were sold within a few days.
Copyright for all images remains with Nina Keri.
Review of Auslander by the late Tasmanian writer, Thomas Connelly 2014
Oil on Board, 2012
900 x 450 cm
NFS
Oil on wallpaper & board, 2013
52 x 72 cm
SOLD
Oil on Canvas, 2013
50 x 50 cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2013
38 x 59 cm
SOLD
Oil on board, 2012
46 x 41 cm
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2013
800 x 550 cm
SOLD
Oil on board, 2014
2500 x 1670 cm
SOLD
Oil on cork board, 2014
900 x 1300 cm
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2014
SOLD
Oil on perspex, 2013
SOLD
Oil on Canvas, 2012
73 x 37 cm
SOLD
Oil on Fabric, 2013
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2013
300 x 420 cm
$500
Oil on perspex, 2014
70 x 50 cm
$600
Oil on Board, 2013
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2013
125 x 78 cm
SOLD
Oil on Perspex, 2014
58 x 38 cm
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2013
1300 x 800 cm
$800
Oil on Board, 2012
45 x 98 cm
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2013
1000 x 500 cm
$400
Oil on Board, 2016
770 x 144cm
$1000.00
Oil on board, 2018
950 x 800 cm
$1200.00
Oil on board, 2017
1650 x 1465 cm
$1300.00
Oil on board, 2018
1290 x 945 cm
$1300.00
Oil on Board, 2016
110 x 138cm
$950.00
Oil on Perspex, 2014
70 x 50cm
Oil on Board, 2013
Oil on Board, 2013
Oil on Board, 2015
2750 x 1800cm
$1500.00
Oil on Board, 2013
Nina Keri has been prolific in producing artworks over the past five years, focusing on three major exhibitions. Here is a small selection of other works that have sat outside of the exhibitions. All rights reserved.
Oil on Board, 2012
44 x 59cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2012
45 x 78cm
NFS
Oil on jigsaw.
70 x 50cm. 2013
SOLD
Oil on Perspex
NFS
Oil on Board, 2010
46 x 60cm
NFS
Oil on board, 2013
90 x 60cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2012
61 x 46cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2012
61 x 46cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2012
55 x 41cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2013
42 x 31cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2012
55 x 41cm
SOLD
Oil on Board, 2013
55 x 41cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2013
61 x 46cm
NFS
Oil on Board, 2013
55 x 40cm
NFS
Haystacks are a fragile and fleeting presence on the landscape, coming from the earth, returning to the earth, given in sustenance to others. When I first came across images of haystacks in Eastern Europe, I was struck by their human physicality, all be it a frozen and shrouded one. The human comparison was intriguing to me. The image of the haystack engenders a sad and forlorn feeling, again because of its human like presence, and more so when one individual haystack is contemplated in the landscape
Initially I was inspired to use the haystacks as vehicle for storytelling and for understanding family history through the narrative of passed down stories. I thought about why haystacks have such a strong resonance with me. To me they look and feel like an ancient and maternal presence, connecting to ancestral harvests, going back hundreds of years. Maybe my Grandmother during her childhood in the Ukraine helped gather the hay and construct haystacks with the family.
My haystacks are searchers of the physical world, and can journey to all the places of my choosing: cities, villages, the countryside, forests, abandoned buildings, looking for evidence of what remains of my ancestral past. A past de-constructed and re-constructed out of the events of the Second World War.
It has become increasingly evident to me that the haystacks that I paint, and the environments I place them in, are also about an emotional state. My artwork is revelatory of deep emotional, spiritual and mental states of being.
In my work I continue to use recycled board and other materials. Their imperfections and past lives have their own wounds and stories which add to mine. I have also used old mirrors, the obscuring and revealing effect they have adds tension to the pieces.
My exhibition will show work that features a journey taking place through the animated haystack, a symbol of paternal ancestry, which now includes me.
Oil on board, 2018
920 x 800
SOLD
Oil on vinyl on board, 2018
855 x 670 cm
SOLD
Oil on Perspex, 2018
61 x 42 cm
SOLD
Oil on Perspex, 2017
950 x 912 cm
SOLD
Oil on board, 2017
1650 x 1465 cm
$1300.00
Oil on board, 2018
1450 x 745 cm
SOLD
Oil on board, 2018
1290 x 945 cm
$1300.00
Oil on board, 2018
950 x 800 cm
$1200.00
Oil on board, 2018
990 x 780 cm
SOLD
Oil on board, 2017.
1370 x 800 cm
SOLD