Nina Pohl Biography

Nina Pohl is both painter and photographer whose works subvert notions of beauty and the sublime. The inherent antagonism between the painted image and the photographic document is explored through the process of picture making. Working with large format photography, the Düsseldorf artist imbues her landscapes with a sense of theatricality, and Romantic and Symbolist grandeur. The drama of nature is captured with an intense awareness of the deception of photography, and Pohl's are exactly that. Broken brushstrokes, layers of paint built up in rugged texture, palimpsest-like markings and fragments of scenes become graphically compressed. Abstract models and gestural brushwork become signs for three dimensional composition, a reversal of the traditional relationship between photography and painting.