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NICO KRIJNO
Born 1981, Cape Town, South Africa
Lives and works just outside Cape Town, South Africa
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OFF Bratislava Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia (NOV. 2026)
MURK (Monograph), Witty Books, Turin, Italy (NOV. 2026)
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I keep coming back to what happens when images are placed against, beside, or opposite one another. An image can carry one meaning on its own, but when it meets another, something shifts. A relationship emerges, or perhaps a relationship that was already there becomes visible.
I’m drawn to these associations, to the new meanings that surface when images are brought together. One image can alter the way we read another. A photograph can suddenly become strange, funny, melancholic, threatening, or tender simply because of what sits next to it
For me, the space between images can be as important as the images themselves. Meaning is not fixed inside a single picture. It moves between pictures: it accumulates, contradicts itself, and transforms.
I follow these connections intuitively, without always knowing where they will lead. Sometimes there is a visual echo, a shared gesture, a strange coincidence, or an emotional recognition that links two images. They may come from completely different places, but when they meet, something clicks into place
In the studio, I move images around until a tension or a resonance appears. That’s often where the work begins. Slowly, the image becomes part of a larger constellation. Relationships reveal themselves through proximity, accident, and intuition. Sometimes two images together can say something that neither could say alone
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Collections
The Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
Foam Fotografiemuseum Archive, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Private and corporate collections in the USA, UK, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa
Awards & Recognition
2016 — Foam Talent, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam
2015 — Nominated for the Paul Huf Award
2014 — Shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation Photobook Award (First Photobook Prize) for Synonym Study
Solo Exhibitions
2025 — 11th Session at L’Appartement, Images Vevey, Vevey, Switzerland
2025 — New Arrangements, The Grist, Malta
- 2023 — The Constellation, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2019 — Leave Your Body Behind, Elizabeth Houston Gallery, New York, USA
2017 — The Fluid Right Edge, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017 — The Fluid Right Edge, Beetles + Huxley, London, UK
2015 — New Gestures: Fabricated to be Photographed, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
2015 — Under Construction, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2015 — Solo Booth, Rotterdam Art Fair, The Ravestijn Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2014 — Construction – Residency Show, 133 Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 — Fulcrum Study, Blank Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 — On How To Fill Those Gaps, Museum Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Selected Group Exhibitions, Festivals & Art Fairs
2026 — Fashion: The Image, Inside Out Centre for the Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
2026 — OFF Bratislava Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia
2025 — Against the Grain, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2024 — On Archives, Thirdspace, Bärengasse , Zürich
2023 — Monochromatic, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2022 — Exclamation Mark, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2022 — One of a Kind, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2021 — Art Rotterdam, The Ravestijn Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2020 — New Visions, The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media, Høvikodden, Norway
2020 — PHOTO 2020, Melbourne, Australia
2019 — The Photography Show by AIPAD, Elizabeth Houston Gallery, New York, USA
2019 — Contemporary Visions 2019, BEERS London, London, UK
2017 — Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017 — The Photography Show by AIPAD, Beetles + Huxley, New York, USA
2017 — Throwing Shapes, SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2017 — Hush Hush, SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2017 — 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Aperture Platform Africa Booth, New York, USA
2016 — New Flesh, Rubber Factory, New York, USA
2016 — Photo London, Huxley-Parlour, London, UK
2016 — Rituals and Performance, LagosPhoto Festival, Lagos, Nigeria
2015 — Romantik, Produzentengalerie, Cologne, Germany
2014 — Uncertain Terms, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 — Wish You Were Here, MOPLA, Los Angeles, USA
2013 — A Painter’s Eye, Sublime & Devine, MOPLA, Los Angeles, USA
2013 — LOW SUBJECT, The Popular Workshop, San Francisco, USA
2013 — Bazaar II, Fairweather House, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 — BLOG RE-BLOG, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA
2013 — New Research, MOPLA / Camera16 Gallery, Milan, Italy
2013 — Syn/Aesthesia, Summerhall, Edinburgh, UK
2013 — Data Gallery, Montreal, Canada
2013 — When Form Becomes Attitude, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2012 — Across the Great Divide, White Gloss Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2012 — Eyes Closed, Eyes Open, Studio 41, Glasgow, UK
2011 — Chain Mail, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Publications / Artist Books
2026 — MURK, Witty Books, Turin (forthcoming)
Moving Image
2025 — The Mouth of Time (15 min 24 sec), Images Vevey, Switzerland
2025 — In the Cave of the Lotus Eater (2 min 47 sec), Images Vevey, Switzerland
Residencies
2014 — 133 Arts Residency, Johannesburg, South Africa
2024 — Thirdspace, Sintra, Portugal
Awards & Recognition
2016 — Foam Talent, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam
2015 — Nominated for the Paul Huf Award
2014 — Shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation Photobook Award (First Photobook Prize) for Synonym Study
Selected Interviews & Features
2025 — “In Conversation With: Nico Krijno,” The Ravestijn Gallery
2025 — “Six Questions: Nico Krijno,” Tique
2024 — “Nature vs Culture: A WIP Manifesto,” Impeached Magazine
2020 — “Evidence of Work: Nico Krijno’s Hypnotic Stills,” British Journal of Photography (1854)
2018 — “Nico Krijno’s New Work Steps into Energetic and Chaotic Set Design,” It’s Nice That
2017 — “On Show: Nico Krijno’s The Fluid Right Edge,” British Journal of Photography (1854)
Publications and Media
2025 — “Six Questions: Nico Krijno,” Tique
2025 — “In Conversation With: Nico Krijno,” The Ravestijn Gallery
2024 — “Nature vs Culture: A WIP Manifesto,” Impeached Magazine
2020 — “Evidence of Work: Nico Krijno’s Hypnotic Stills,” British Journal of Photography (1854)
2018 — “Nico Krijno’s New Work Steps into Energetic and Chaotic Set Design,” It’s Nice That
2017 — “On Show: Nico Krijno’s The Fluid Right Edge,” British Journal of Photography (1854)
2017 — The Fluid Right Edge, feature and interview, Beetles + Huxley / Huxley-Parlour
2016 — Featured artist, Foam Talent (Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam)
2014 — Synonym Study, shortlisted publication, Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation Photobook Award
Selected Editorial Publications
Aperture
At Large
LensCulture
Dazed Digital
L’Officiel
Neon
Disturber
Another Magazine
The Light Observer
Apartamento
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