Details:

This painting features the artist's writing on the canvas among green spiraling ornaments—the words present themselves in a flicker, revealing parts of a rather unusual love poem. Writing is a big part of the artist's practice, and she often renders swirling letters.
Unframed
Signed

① Artwork:

And when I say the world I mean my body

This painting features the artist's writing on the canvas among green spiraling ornaments—the words present themselves in a flicker, revealing parts of a rather unusual love poem. The artist often renders swirling letters, including as part of a room installation in her solo show The Great Spaghettification in Paris. In this installation, each letter of a poem was cut out in wood and installed on the walls of the exhibition space. Writing is a big part of Nis-Hansen practice, not only for performance purposes but also within the pictorial space of a painting or as a discrete component existing within a room.

Nis-Hansen's paintings explore the body's presence amid contemporary capitalism, frequently depicting subjects as anxious, waiting, resting, ill or non-functioning. The artist's semi-autobiographical works often feature waiting rooms, spiral staircases, reclining figures and text statements. Nis-Hansen's work examines exhaustion, illness, bodily maintenance, female labor, heritage and the environment—and demonstrates a curiosity about the history of painting, as well as the social construction of hierarchies of taste.

Specs:

35.4 inches
47.2 inches

③ Artist:

Tanja Nis-Hansen

Tanja Nis-Hansen’s semi-autobiographical work explores the body's presence amid contemporary capitalism. Encompassing painting, performance and text, the artist’s compositions frequently depict anxious, waiting, resting, ill or non-functioning figures. Nis-Hansen’s work invites viewers to think about exhaustion, illness, bodily maintenance, female labor, heritage and the environment—while also examining the history of painting and the social construction of hierarchies of taste.

BIO:

Tanja Nis-Hansen was born in Faxe, Denmark in 1988. The artist received both a BFA (2016) and an MFA (2018) from the Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg in Germany under the supervision of professor Jutta Koether. Nis-Hansen also studied in Copenhagen, Denmark and Vienna, Austria.

Solo exhibitions of Nis-Hansen’s work have taken place at: Sans titre (2016) in Paris, France (2019, 2022); Sydhavn Station in Copenhagen, Denmark (2019); Come Over chez Malik’s in Hamburg, Germany (2017); and the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg, Germany (2015).

Group exhibitions that have included Nis-Hansen’s work have taken place at: JUNE in Berlin, Germany (2022); L’INCONNUE in New York City (2021); Melike Bilir in Hamburg, Germany (2021); SORT in Vienna, Austria (2019); Crum Heaven in Stockholm, Sweden (2019); Rumpelstiltskin in New York City (2018); Kunsthaus Hamburg in Germany (2018); Galleria Federico Vavassori in Milan, Italy (2018); Münchner Kammerspiele in Munich, Germany (2018); The Institut Kunst in Basel, Switzerland (2018); and Halle fur Kunst in Lüneburg, Germany (2017).

In 2020, Nis-Hansen was awarded a travel grant by Neue Kunst Hamburg in Germany for CONNY, the artist’s performative collaboration with Niclas Riepshoff. Nis-Hansen was awarded a work grant by the Danish Art Council in 2019.

Nis-Hansen lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Tanja Nis-Hansen:
And when I say the world I mean my body, 2022
Oil and acrylic on canvas
47.2 × 35.4 inches /