Katrine Giæver

Add artist to list

Giæver continues her long practice of bypassing traditional approaches to making pictures. In recent years, the range of materials, both as a binder for pigment and supports for application of paints has ranged from industrial lacquers and aluminum, via acrylic fillers and facade cladding panels, to coarse mats of jute, wax and panels in birch and poplar. And the methods of applying color have been equally varied; spraying, pouring, sparkling, dipping and scraping are prominent, while traces of the hand, as manifested in brushstrokes, are mostly absent.

“The possibilities that reside in a given material, either as latent or realized potential, is a common thread in Katrine Giæver’s practice. The choice of wax is motivated by the distinctive depth and color that arises when using the material, on the threshold of the three-dimensional. A certain object character defines these images, and can be clearly seen in relation to her previous works.
Beeswax and organic resins are mixed with pure color pigments. When the hot wax mixture cools, it hardens in a few minutes, and the application on veneered panels must be precise and pointed – like action painting with a slow material. The wax mixture is poured and manipulated until the flow of color comes to rest with curving edges, although sometimes more straight lines appear. The action creates the form, and a gradual build-up of the image surface becomes the scene of intimate and playful encounters. In this context Giæver sees herself as an operator, a catalyst that starts and stops the process. Wax as a material possesses both resistance and a warm nerve.” Quote from Art historian Line Ulekleiv