Nina Beier's installation "Plug" features a minimalist wall-mounted ceramic sink with a cigar protruding from its drain, contrasting sleek white curves with the organic texture of the cigar. This juxtaposition highlights themes of consumption and cultural symbolism, inviting viewers to reconsider the value and meanings embedded in everyday objects. Beier's conceptual style employs readymade objects to provoke thought and dialogue, emphasizing the layered histories and significance these items carry. Her work continues to explore the societal narratives within mundane objects, capturing their transformative potential through unexpected combinations. ...
Nina Beier is interested in the embedded sociocultural significance within and signification transmitted by materials and objects. She works to challenge the everyday readymade objects that she assembles, exploring their symbolic breadth and magnitude. Beier acquires much of her objet d’art by trawling through eBay. This is part of the process, a continuation of the trading process already experienced by these objects. The artist is determined to let objects speak for themselves, to propel their own meaning forward. To achieve this, she experiments with different juxtapositions and hierarchies. Her role is to catalyse a reaction, the spark of contrast between disparate objects. In Sink, a 2018 installation at Spike Island, hand-rolled cigars protrude from ceramic sinks. When unravelled, the cigars reveal several layers of signification; wealth, colonialism, the history of global trade. Through her work, one can begin to comprehend and unpick at what stage objects are imbued with layers of meaning and attributed value. ...
In 2016 Croy Nielsen moved from Berlin to Vienna, where it is located in the beletage apartment of a historical building in the 1st district. The gallery was founded by Oliver Croy (AT) and Henrikke Nielsen (DK). Artists such as Nina Beier, Marie Lund, and Benoît Maire, have been part of the program since its inception, and were later joined by Olga Balema, Georgia Gardner Gray, and Sandra Mujinga. Vienna-based artists include Ernst Yohji Jaeger, Joanna Woś, and Soshiro Matsubara. The gallery has strong ties to the Nordic region, representing several artists from the Scandinavian contries and regularly participating in fairs and projects in the area. ...
