Line Krom
lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.

 

Line Krom‘s artistic practise is about translating economic concepts visually. The starting point of her conceptual approach is cutting down as an economic promise of salvation. She questions the meaningfulness of conditions governed by the concept of efficiency. Her work ironizes austerity measures that most of the art business is subjected to. 

Krom focuses on the working conditions in the art system and tests the impact of economic pressure (flexibility, austerity measures, precariousness) on the supporting structure of art. As artist she asks how economy measures look like, what influence management decisions have on the material (non-human (e.g. art supply) and human (e.g. gallery assistants). She does this through material stress tests that highlight the modus operandi of economic measures. Through this method she makes side effects tangible and identifies underlying paradoxes of the efficiency paradigm. 

For example her series "Untitled (strippings)" examines what happens when austerity measures are executed on the supporting structure of painting: canvas . Her work osillates between minimalist pictorial inventions, Arte Povera and neoliberal occupational therapy. At first glance, the principle of flexibilization, a concept which originates from the corporate world, leads to an undesired result: the canvas becomes dysfunctional as supparting material for painting. Furthermore, the austerity measures lead to an economically unjustifiable, enormous expenditure of work time. The actual goal, i. e. saving, is counteracted by the necessary work measures. The threads that have been exempted or saved by the flexibilisation measure will be re-used and transformed into a poetic added value. The stringent results are full of playful lightness and delicate beauty.

 

Line Krom is an artist based in Frankfurt/M. She studied at the Wimbledon College of Art in London, at the University of the Arts in Berlin, and at the University of Frankfurt. She was awarded with a residency at the Centre For Contemporary Art Kitakyushu in Japan to produce a long term collaborative drawing project. She was invited for a Residency at the Center for Drawing in London to produce new work. Her drawings were awarded with the prestigious British Jerwood Drawing Prize and the Prix des Arts Rotary Club Karlsruhe, Straßbourg, St. Louis.

Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the L. A. Art Book Fair, Los Angeles, the BronxArtSpace in New York and the Jerwood Space in London. Most recent at the Freie Internationale Akademie Amorbach (2018), the European School of Design in Frankfurt (2017), the Regionalgalerie Süd Regierungspräsidium in Darmstadt (2017), the Blyth Gallery in London (2016) and at Boeckercontemporary in Heidelberg (2016). Solo exhibitions upcoming in 2019 will be at the Kunstverein Gießen and the Nachtspeicher 23 in Hamburg.

In addition to her artistic work she has a curatorial practise which includes project planning and delivery (exhibitions, events, publications), research and text production and educational service. Currently she works at the Institut für Kunstpädagogik, Goethe University in Frankfurt/M in Extra-Curricular Art Education: Mediating Collections and Exhibitions Theory and Practise. Previously she worked at the Faculty for Humanitarian Sciences and Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt. The Inclusive Art Institution in Theory and Practise - outlining the hierarchy of relations in the Art Gallery and from that creating possible intersections between Art and Social Work. 

 

 

Selected Reviews

 

Alexandra Flieth : Internationale Künstler stellen ihre Werke zur Sexualität in der Klosterpresse aus

http://www.fnp.de/lokales/frankfurt/Internationale-Kuenstler-stellen-ihre-Werke-zur-Sexualitaet-in-der-

Klosterpresse-aus;art675,2966311, April 2018

 

Ekkehard Tanner : Wo gehobelt wird fallen Späne.

www.schirn.de/magazin/schirn_tipp/line_krom_cutting_back_ausstellung_becker_frankfurt/; May 2017

 

Erhard Metz : Line Krom: „Cutting Back to Look Better“ – Installation im Frankfurter Ausstellungsraum

Becker www.feuilletonfrankfurt.de/2017/04/28/line-krom-cutting-back-to-look-better-installation-imfrankfurter-ausstellungsraum-becker/; May 2017

 

Roland Held : Verfremdetes Spielzeug, gerupfte Leinwand: Werke von Helmut Werres und Line Krom in

Darmstadt, http://www.echo-online.de/freizeit/kunst-und-kultur/ausstellungen/darmstadt/verfremdetes-spielzeuggerupfte-leinwand-werke-von-helmut-werres-und-line-krom-in-darmstadt_17684717.htm ; March 2017

 

Bettina Kneller : Das rote Spielzeugauto. In Main Echo, 15. February 2017

 

Ausstellung zu Werken von Line Krom und Helmut Werres

http://www.main-echo.de/regional/rhein-main-hessen/art4013,4393961; January 2017

 

Die Klosterpresse in Blau getaucht http://www.fnp.de/lokales/frankfurt/Die-Klosterpresse-in-Blau-getaucht;art675,2110259, July 2016

 

Interview mit Line Krom über Ihr Projekt „Ghost Tours“ in Offenbach

https://www.audioguide.me/interview-mit-line-krom-ueber-ihr-projekt-ghost-tours-in-offenbach/, July 2015

 

Heiner Schultz : Line Krom zeigt in der Galerie Unterer Hardthof ihre Arbeiten "Strippings" http://www.giessener-anzeiger.de/lokales/kultur/line-krom-zeigt-in-der-galerie-unterer-hardthof-ihre-arbeitenstrippings_15183535.htm, April 2015