Smartphones, televisions, advertising screens: moving images exert a hypnotic pull. Christy Groen (1991) is fascinated by this power. In her paintings and installations, she seeks to better understand this sense of enchantment by analysing and recreating its mechanisms.
She experiments with analogue machines that, like screens, generate moving images. For this, Groen uses the same basic components found in standard devices, such as light and polarizing filters, but applies them in an entirely distinctive way. Earlier versions of these machines were made from cardboard and wood, emphasizing their analogue, handmade character. The most recent machines, with their black casing, more closely resemble the industrial products that inspired them. As a result, the focus shifts away from the physical apparatus and towards the moving image itself.
Groen draws inspiration for these moving images from the way screens operate. From individual image fragments, forms and patterns emerge, sometimes developing into abstract landscapes and spaces, as if a virtual world were hidden behind the screen. Her interest lies not in representation, but in the process by which screens generate images, and the effect this has on the viewer. How do we experience a collection of primary-coloured pixels as fluid images spanning a full spectrum?
Groen's images are hypnotic, yet slower and simpler than the visual stimuli that constantly surround us. They do not demand the viewer’s full attention, instead leaving room for thought, imagination and interpretation.
Text provided by Sarah van Binsbergen.
Education
2021 - 2023 Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design, Cum Laude, Frank Mohr Institute (MADtech), Groningen
2015 - 2018 Bachelor of Fine Art Painting, AKI-Artez, Enschede
2014 - 2015 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Basic year, Amsterdam
2013 - 2014 Artez, Hogeschool voor de kunsten, Zwolle
Postgraduate:
2019 - 2020 Bcademie, Rotterdam
Exhibitions
27/ 03/ 2026 - 29/ 03/ 2026, "Prospects" 2026, Rotterdam
2/ 09/ 2025 - 15/ 09/ 2025, Open studio, Personal Vieuwing Experience 12/ 09/ 2025 - 15/ 09/ 2025
18/ 10/ 2023 - 23/ 12/ 2023, "Gallery Fons Welters", Amsterdam, NL
17/ 06/ 2023 - 22/ 03/ 2023, "FUTURE", De Toekomst, Scheemda, NL
14/ 03/ 2023 - 16/ 03/ 2023, Bice, NP3 RE:Search:Gallery, Groningen, NL
05/ 08/ 2022 - 28/ 08/ 2022, Allegory of the Brave, Kunstpodium T, Tilburg, NL (solo)
02/ 10/ 2020 - 31/ 10/ 2020, Red Green and Blue, Jedan Osam Jedan, Rotterdam, NL (solo)
03/ 07/ 2020 - 12/ 07/ 2020, "#softmarket", Frank taal, Rotterdam, NL
06/ 02/ 2020 - 09/ 02/ 2020, "Not For Profit Art
Party - Basecamp edition", together with Basecamp Collective, Almondestraat 151, Rotterdam, NL
06/ 02/ 2020 - 09/ 02/ 2020, "Not For Profit Art Party", together with "de Bcademie", Pension Almonde, Rotterdam, NL
31/ 05/ 2019 - 23/ 06/ 2019, "Terra Incognita", Temporary Art Centre, Eindhoven, NL
21/ 11/ 2018 - 01/ 03/ 2019, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, NL
14/ 09/ 2018 - 16/ 09/ 2018, "Destilaat #20", Extrapool, Nijmegen, NL
29/ 06/ 2018 - 04/ 07/ 2018, "AKI-Artez finals 2018" Graduation show, AKI-Artez, Enschede, NL
Residency
23/ 08/ 2020 - 02/ 10/ 2020, residency for "Red Green and Blue", Jedan Osam Jedan, Rotterdam, NL
03/ 09/ 2018 - 16/ 09/ 2018, residency for "Destilaat #20", Extrapool, Nijmegen, NL
Funding
2025 - Mondriaanfund (Stipendium for emerging artists)