Nico Krijno

Rather than capturing the world as it is, Nico Krijno stages it anew. What begins as something familiar such as an aloe, a flower, or a vase quickly unravels into something much stranger. Blossoms blur, backgrounds melt, and objects appear to vibrate or fold in on themselves. His compositions do not settle into one thing. Some feel sculptural, others painterly. Some appear stitched together across different registers or moments. Each one resists stillness and seems caught mid-transformation.

While some images hold traces of their origins, including petals, textures, and shadows, others move into pure abstraction. These more elusive works ripple with colour and distortion, as if folding space and time into their surfaces. They beckon the viewer’s psyche to search for what lies beneath, to trace a logic that is always just out of reach, yet never fully revealed.

Using a combination of studio photography, digital editing, and painterly manipulation, Nico Krijno treats the photographic image not as a finished product but as raw material to be stretched, layered, and pushed to its limits. He digitally alters and reimagines his photographs through a continuous process of experimentation, producing compositions that are vibrant, abstract, and constantly in flux.

At first glance, the works appear playful and bright. But look more closely and a deeper investigation into the visual language of photography begins to unfold. Patterns emerge and dissolve. Familiar shapes become warped beyond recognition. Symbols repeat, fracture, and gradually fall apart.

By reworking the core elements of image-making, including colour, form, perspective, and process, Krijno invites us to reconsider how we see. His images ask us to look again and then again, revealing new details with each encounter. In doing so, he opens up a space where perception is unfixed, always shifting, and never entirely resolved.

At the heart of Nico Krijno’s work is a sense of curiosity and restlessness. What happens when an image loses its footing? When a flower arrangement no longer behaves like one? When visual logic gives way to something less certain?