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BIOGRAPHY | SELECTED WORKS | RECENT EXHIBITIONS | SELECTED PRESS
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BIOGRAPHY
Nina Canell’s work, in general, deals with invisible energies made apparent. Inheriting core tenets from Fluxus, her work is situated somewhere between established, static sculpture and the performativity of natural events or occurrences. Her recent sculptures fragments or ‘cuttings’ from high voltage cables, which first emerged in her significant 2014 solo shows at Camden Arts Centre, London; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and formed the core of her presentation at Art Basel, Hong Kong, have been perfectly described in a recent text from a show at the Dutch institution, Witte de With:
“The work of Nina Canell attempts to activate an intersection between humans, objects and events whereby a certain kind of material imagination might be articulated. A method of loosely combining found or unrelated materials is central to her practice. Triggering situations, they encourage us to think of a place where something can be shared, altered or set off in an unexpected direction. Nina Canell meditates upon the loss of information and energy that occurs during processes of transference in her sculptural constellation of stumps and cross-sections of telecommunication and power cables, each becoming sentences cut-off mid-flow or instances of material forgetfulness.”
Canell’s solo exhibitions include Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai (2016); Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin (2016); Arko Art Centre, Seoul (2015), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2014), Camden Arts Centre, London (2014), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle (2014), Lunds Konsthall, Sweden (2014), Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2013), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, (2012), Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2011), Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Vienna (2010). Her work has also featured in major international group exhibitions, including La vie Moderne, 13th Biennale de Lyon; 18th Biennale, Sydney; La Triennale, Intense Proximity, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; On Line, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Liverpool Biennale, Tate Liverpool; Manifesta 7, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol; 7th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju. Canell’s work is held in major private and public collections worldwide and featured in monographs and publications.
Born Sweden, 1979, lives and works in Berlin.
Download the complete artist biography.
SELECTED WORKS

NINA CANELL, "In Absence of Satin Ions (detail)", 2014, Chewing gum, fitted carpet, ioniser, plexi, underfloor heating carpet,
Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Foam-Skin Insulated Jelly-Filled Vowel", 2016, Barbara Wien Galerie, Berlin, Installation view, Photograph Nick Ash

NINA CANELL, "Tip of the Tongue", 2016, Dictaphone, bouncy ball, silicone, paper, tape, Photograph Nick Ash

NINA CANELL, "Shedding Sheaths (B) (detail)", 2016, Fibre-optic cable sheaths, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Shedding Sheaths (B) (detail)", 2016, Fibre-optic cable sheaths, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Brief Syllables (detail)", 2014, High voltage and telecommunication cables, steel, wood, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Free-Space Path Loss", 2014, Fingerprints and heat on copper, nails, Photograph Terje Östling / Lunds Konsthall

NINA CANELL, "Satin Ions", 2015, Arko Art Centre, Seoul, Installation view, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Shedding Sheaths (H) (detail)", 2015, Fibre-optic cable sheaths, Photograph Hyejin Park

NINA CANELL, "Shedding Sheaths (H) (detail)", 2015, Fibre-optic cable sheaths, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "The Promise of Moving Things", 2014, le Crédac, Paris, Installation view, Photograph André Morin / le Crédac

NINA CANELL, "Brief Syllable (Contagious) (detail)", 2014, Telecommunication cable, acrylic, concrete, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Perpetuum Mobile (25 kg)", 2009, Water, basin, ultrasound generator, concrete, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Flexions (detail)", 2016, Memory wire, pegboard, frequency generators, loudspeakers, cables,
electrical connectors, DC generators, relay-timers, proximity sensor, wood, steel,
Collaboration with Robin Watkins, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Near Here (1 Microsecond)", 2014, Photocopying toner, nylon, 1,000,000 volt during 1 microsecond,
Collaboration with Robin Watkins, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Soft Corner", 2013, Neon, copper, cable, 5000 volt, Photograph Mother’s Tankstation / Leo Xu Projects,
The Mud of Compound Experience, Leo Xu Projects in collaboration with Mother’s Tankstation, Hong Kong, 2016, Installation view

NINA CANELL, "Brief Syllable (Blue)", 2016, Telecommunication cable, acrylic, concrete,
Photograph Mother’s Tankstation / Leo Xu Projects, The Mud of Compound Experience,
Leo Xu Projects in collaboration with Mother’s Tankstation, Hong Kong, 2016, Installation view

NINA CANELL, "Days of Inertia", 2015, Water, hydrophobic nano coat, stone tile, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Ode to Outer Ends", 2010, Wood, coconut, electromagnetic device, epoxy, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Halway Between Opposite Ends", 2013, Stick, saline, 4000 volt, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Halway Between Opposite Ends (studio)", 2013, Stick, saline, 4000 volt, Photograph Robin Watkins

NINA CANELL, "Overcoming the Current Resistance", 2012, Neon, copper, cable, 152,000 volt, Photograph Robin Watkins,
Installation view at 18th Biennale of Sydney

NINA CANELL, "And So Entangled", 2012, Neon, cable, 5000 volt, Photograph Robin Watkins,
Installation view at 18th Biennale of Sydney
For more works and projects by the artist, download the portfolio in pdf.
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RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
“Reflexology”, Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai, China, 2016
“Foam-Skin Insulated Jelly-Filled Vowel”, Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany, 2016
“Shedding Sheaths”, Unlimited, Art 47 Basel, Switzerland, 2016
“Satin Ions”, Arko Art Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2015
“Brief Syllable (Flat)”, Rond-Point Projects, Marseille, France, 2015
“Dimensions Withheld”, Daniel Marzona, Berlin, Germany, 2015
“Free-Space Path Loss”, Lunds Konsthall, Sweden, 2014
“Mid-Sentence”, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2014
“Near Here”, Lulu, Mexico City, Mexico, 2014
“O Little Drops”, Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin, Ireland, 2013
“Stray Warmings”, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, USA, 2013
“Nina Canell & Rolf Julius”, Hamburg Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany, 2012
“Tendrils”, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, 2012
“Into the Eyes as Ends of Hair”, Cubitt Gallery, London, UK, 2012
“Ode to Outer Ends”, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, 2011
“Matter of the Heart / Heart of the Matter”, Konrad Fischer Galerie / Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany, 2011
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
“We Are The Centre For Curatorial Studies (Phase 1)”, Hessel Museum of Art, New York, USA, 2016
“Inflected Objects #2 Circulation – Otherwise, Unhinged”, Future Gallery, Berlin, Germany
, 2016
“A Thousand Horsepower”, Trinxet Factory, Barcelona, Spain
, 2016
“The Distance of a Day”, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
, 2016
“Third Nature”, CCS Bard, New York, USA
, 2016
“The Mud of Compound Experience”, Mother’s Tankstation in collaboration with Leo Xu Projects, Hong Kong, China
, 2016
“Life Itself. On the question of what it essentially is; its materialities, its characteristics considering that the attempts to…”, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2016
“Matter Fictions”, Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal
, 2016
“Die Kräfte hinter den Formen / The forces behind the forms”, Galerie im Taxipalais, Innsbruck, Austria, 2016
“Accrochage”, Pinault, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy
, 2016
“FluxesFeverFuturesFiction”, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, Spain, 2016
“Accueille-moi paysage”, Marcelle Alix, Paris, France, 2016
“La Vie Moderne”, 13th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France, 2015
“All Our Relations”, 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2012
“La Triennale – Intense Proximity” (curated by Okwui Envezor), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2012
“On Line: Drawing through the twentieth Century”, MoMA, New York, USA, 2010
“Touched”, Liverpool Biennale, Liverpool, UK, 2010
SELECTED PRESS
Artforum, “Nina Canell”, Text/Arthur Solway, P288, March 2017 [download pdf]
Lyon Biennale, “Nina Canell”, by Ralph Rugoff, September, 2015 [download pdf]
ArtAsiaPacific, “Satin Ions at Arko Art Centre”, by Jayoon Choi, May, 2015 [download pdf]
ArtReview, “Satin Ions at Arko Art Centre”, by Aimee Lin, May, 2015 [download pdf]
Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite/Arko Art Centre, “Satin Ions”, by Hyunjin Kim, May, 2015 [download pdf]
Artforum, “Mid-Sentence at Moderna Museet”, by Neringa Cerniauskaite, March, 2015 [download pdf]
Sternberg Press and Midway Contemporary Art, “Crosstalk (conversation)”, by Dieter Roelstraete & Monika Szewczyk, May, 2014 [download pdf]
Artforum, “Critic’s Picks”, Kate Sutton, March, 2014 [download pdf]
Lunds Konsthall, “Free-Space Path Loss”, by Chris Sharp, 2014 [download pdf]
Mother’s Tankstation, “O Little Drops”, by Rebecca O’Dwyer, 2013 [download pdf]
AMC Collezione Coppola in Solo, “Every Distance Is Not Near”, by Fionn Meade, No.3, 2012 [download pdf]
Frieze Magazine, “Into the Eyes as Ends of Hair”, by Martin Herbert, May 1, 2012 [download pdf]
Cubitt Gallery, “Sistine”, by Steven Connor, March, 2012 [download pdf]
Monopol Magazine, “Unter Strom”, by Silke Hohmann, May, 2011 [download pdf]
Distanz Verlag, “Under Destruction”, by Piper Marshall, April, 2011 [download pdf]
Kaleidoscope, “Nina Canell”, by Leah Whitman-Salkin, 2010-11 [download pdf]
Phaidon, “Creamier”, by Adam Szymczyk, May, 2010 [download pdf]
Tate Liverpool, “Touched – Liverpool Biennial”, by Peter Gorschlueter, 2010 [download pdf]