Nick Knight's 'Roses From My Garden' Series Travels To Nice
In all its entirety, Nick Knight's 'Roses From My Garden' has travelled to Nice. Presented as part of 'Fleurs' at the city's 2022 Biennial art fair, the occasion marks the first time the image-maker's seminal floral works have been shown outside the UK.
In all its entirety, Nick Knight's 'Roses From My Garden' has travelled to Nice. Presented as part of 'Fleurs' at the city's 2022 Biennial art fair, the occasion marks the first time the image-maker's seminal floral works have been shown outside the UK.
Despite not being the first time Nick Knight has exhibited his Roses From My Garden series, the Nice-based exhibition marks the first time the complete selection of 40 works will be presented altogether.
Although Knight has famously photographed the rose many times, starting in 1993, Roses From My Garden only began seven years ago, exploring the flower's life and subsequent death by unveiling the beauty in its decaying process. Inspired by the melancholic beauty distilled in Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries, Knight's roses act as a modern approach to this unique way of documenting nature's unruly beauty.
'Above all, it's just a conversation between me and the rose. My job as an image-maker is not just to show you what you can see, but to show you what isn't. The best image is the expression of the spirit of the artist' - Nick Knight.
Starting with a handpicked selection of roses from his garden, Knight then photographs them with his iPhone before editing via software using artificial intelligence. Painterly qualities are exerted through this technique encouraging the flowers to become digital representations of the original photographs at hand. Once blown up, a further edit is applied with a Chinagraph pencil, working to create a sharpness to each image. The final works sit in a new space between painting and photography, presenting an innovative new language of image-making.
Previous displays of this series have taken place at Albion Barn and Waddesdon - where Knight teased exhibition goers by only including a selection from the series. Want to catch the roses in all their beautiful glory? The exhibition at Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre will be on until 11 September, making Nice a perfect destination to fit into your summer holiday plans.
