The oeuvre of Nico Yerna (1965) is all about psychology. For many years, a
number of theoretical questions have been central to his work. What processes
go on in his head? How does an idea come about? How do images form, and who is
the artist? The subjects he interprets on canvas and in objects are both
fascinating and universal.
Small shreds of cardboard depict synaptic impulses: energy coursing through
the brain. Small flows of energy run through Yerna's work like a leitmotif.
Starting in his small installations, they recur in his mural objects and
paintings. That reflects a systematic approach to work. But, though Nico
Yerna's closest affinity is with drawing and painting, he makes it clear that
these objects are not studies for his paintings, but standalone works of art.
Nico Yerna's latest works not only display his trains of ideas more clearly on
canvas. Texts such as ‘don’t cross’ and ‘cool stuff happens’ act as signposts
to the viewer and allude to Yerna's research into the art of painting. By
literally spreading across the canvas the resources an artist uses in the
studio, he goes a stage further. Here is a teatime canvas, streaked with paint
and coffee. Here are a painter's trousers. Nico Yerna makes them part of his
paintings. The footprint is left behind as a deliberate reminder of when the
artist was at work. What we see is not a theoretical working out of the
artist's fantasies. This is literally Nico Yerna on canvas. Literally, too,
the viewer may wonder what more there could possibly be to add. Or does the
artist's self-portrait mark an end to this research process? In his latest
works, including a portrait of his father on a tablecloth, Yerna seems to be
taking a new direction.
Nico Yerna studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Maastricht and at the
Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. He has exhibited at Hedah and Galerie Diepzout in
Maastricht and at Pictura in Groningen.
