> view artwork
photos from the exhibition:
> 06.2006.: Sunny Side Up!
> 05.2005.: sneak like a panther
Nina Braun is immersed in an analogue world, where the obsession with material and her devotion to each individual object emerges from her very personal imagery.
Her approach to materials like wool and fabric are the base for her sometimes child-like and naive objects that result from an intensive working process. Considering that we are living in a digital era where economical aspects of the working process prevail and thoughts and images can be infinitely reproduced, Nina Braun’s approach to work is quite revolutionary.
Her knitting and sewing work, resulting in fantastic and almost playful sculptures and objects, radically defies the thoughts of usability and conceptionalism. It is the outcome of her intuition only and is easily perceived and understood by the viewer as such - evoking imagery from our childhood and the aesthetics of comic heroes and pop culture.
Nina Braun: In the countryside (2008. 94 x 84 x 12 cm; wool, fabric, wadding, rubber foam, doll-eyes, wire, paperboard, wood)
Once you’ve overcome the urge to touch the silky surfaces of Nina Brauns’ sculptures you pause in amazement at the mesmerizing elaborateness and devotion with which Nina Braun creates her works. Her art is accessible and abstract at the same time. While the material, the shapes and the quotations are recognizable, the rather unconventional combination creates a unique momentum and by this entangle the viewer.
The various characters created by Nina wander through different media and are constantly subject to metamorphosis. Starting off as drawings, they evolve into parts of objects and scultpures, before they finally come to life in animations.
Nina Braun: Take your time but don't take mine (2008. 81 x 31 x 7 cm; wool, fabric, wadding, doll-eyes and paperboard on canvas)
Nina Braun has always cut her own path, irrespective of social guidelines or standards. Through self-teaching, experiences and experiments, she has built the fundament she needs to devote herself to her creative output. She wants to be able to only do what feels right for her, and her alone. Years ago, she decided to leave artschool and investigate the spectrum of creative expression by herself and to gain her personal view on art.
Nina Braun: Gang (2008. 80 x 80 x 70 cm;wool, fabric, wadding, doll-eyes, wire, paperboard, wood)
Subsequently it’s impossible to label the work of Nina Braun. She doesn’t feel related to any genre or school, although she admits that being part of a scene can provide security. But despite her techical skills and devotion for traditional crafts, often historically related to being „female trades“ (like knitting and sewing), her work is not part of any feminist or political movement. And even though she maintains a strong and active bond to the Urban Art scene, her work is not part of this genre either.
Maybe Nina Braun is a representative of a „modern hippie art“-movement, as she ironically observes ... only to lead us off the beaten track again.
(Maike Mocayo)
(Nina Braun, Photo by Felix Gebhardt)
photos from the exhibition "Sunny Side Up!"
> 06.2006.: nina braun
photos from the exhibition "sneak like a panther"
> 05.2005.: nina braun
artist website:
>>> artist website
Nina Braun: Sneak Like A Panther (2005-2007. Installation of 12 sneaker objects, wool, fabric, wadding, shelves)