Anki King
New York, NY
Website
www.ankiking.com
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
If limited to one word, I believe expressionism is the category my work would fall under. Of course, even unlimited words will fall short in describing what actually happens in a painting. And no words can capture the experience of the person standing in front of a work of art.
My work has gone through several changes. After a classical arts education, it was a challenge finding my own way. At first, I used photos that I took of friends and people around me as sketches. Then I turned the camera and began using images of myself. Finally, I stopped using photographic source material and started working purely from imagination and memory. This was, and still is, incredibly challenging. The paintings are created by putting brush to canvas and trusting that the process and materials will guide me. This trust took many years to develop and now I find that searching for the painting is my goal and the most interesting imagery emerges when I avoid concepts and verbal ideas.
Throughout these changes, what has stayed consistent is the figure, it has always been what I hang my paint on. The characters that appear are most often long-limbed and faceless and tend to be alone, but occasionally two or more show up together. From about two years before Covid until last year, they began covering up by what seemed to be a cloth or a sheet. I am still working out why this was happening. What emerges in the paintings is new to me and often feels as mysterious and exciting to myself as they can to others seeing them for the first time.
What inspires you?
What I experience, what I see, dream and think. Many times though the creativity of others, in movies, books and art. All the impressions come together and become part of who I am and as I create, it changes through the filter of me into something unique that I hope can again inspire others.
Can you speak about your process?
It is an intuitive process. I often start with fields of color on the canvas which gives me something to work against. Mostly I end up with a surface that appears quite limited in color, but there are hints of the brightness behind and between brushstrokes covering it up. I believe the limited color in my work relates to the nature where I grew up. The mountains and forests of Norway are dark and during much of the year seem almost black and white so I feel at home with grays and blues. In challenging myself to use a more intense palette, I realized that I am extremely sensitive to color and am easily overwhelmed, while in small amounts it becomes precious.
Since there is very little planning ahead of time, I explore many options directly before colors or shapes settle. This is an exciting and at times frustrating search. A lot of time is spent just looking at and being with the work. Once stepping up to the canvas I work energetically. Working large demands that I use my whole body which I find adds to the experience. I lean into something physical that relates back to the figures. Immediacy feels important and one of my challenges is to find ways of having more of that.
How did you become interested in art?
It took me a while to come to art. I grew up in a small town in Norway and there were no artists around me. The one way I knew about artists was from the annual school trip to Oslo. What we saw there made it seem that artists were all dead and gone and they left behind romantic portraits and detailed landscapes in stuffy museums.
The creativity in my surroundings were in crafts, my mother knits, crochets and embroiders and my father worked as a cartographer and was very detail oriented. I used to draw a lot, but was not aware this was something that would become a lifelong endeavor until I was about 20. School is free in Norway, so after first studying accounting, I decided to go back and pursue something more enjoyable and signed up for art and craft. The plan was to do this for only one year before getting back to the accounting studies. About 3 years later, at a private art school in Oslo, I had the realization that I was becoming an artist. There was nothing else I would want to do for the rest of my life. It has given my life meaning and I cannot imagine life without it.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, or books?
I enjoy these also in a very intuitive and emotional way. I love painters who work with materials physically, like Susan Rothenberg, Nathan Olivera, Manuel Neri, Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois and Pat Pasloff. There are also many current artists I admire and I feel part of a great community of supportive and inventive artists in NYC. The works I enjoy the most are the ones that hit me hard, often dark, intense and melancholic. I want to be transformed, transported and moved when I look at art.
When it comes to books, I recently enjoyed Knausgard’s “The Morning Star”. His writing flows in a way that tickles my brain. I loved his little book “So Much Longing in So Little Space” about Munch. Another small book I felt contained something large is The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. And I often come back to Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke.
Movies are more difficult for me. I am so visually sensitive that I go into emotional overload very quickly. I watch light movies mostly for entertainment. Intense or heavy movies stay with me for a very long time and it can be exhausting. Some with more thoughtful content that I really like are: Another Earth, Science of Sleep and Moon.
What advice do you have for younger artists?
It depends on what they want to get out of being an artist. If they are just looking to have something to give meaning to their lives, just keep making art. If they are looking for a career, I believe connections are important and ways of making connections can be by writing about other artists and also curating exhibitions. There is nothing easy about being an artist, creator or performer, but it is fulfilling in ways that I cannot imagine anything else really can be.
