"As soon as you put two things together, you get a story".
John Baldessari
Studio, Berlin, Germany, 2022
Born 1983 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lives and works in Berlin
Celeste Najt’s work speaks about relations, but not exclusively interpersonal ones. Her quest is more ambitious: Relations themselves are captured and expressed on canvas. Connections -or disconnections- are manifested in the ways the parts communicate, thus building an all-embracing totality which generates a cycle when regarded as a part. Celeste illustrates the cycles of existence, her own existence.
Her work recalls the ways of a cabinet of curiosities, which allows one to arrive to the notion that a box of cigarettes is a worthy specimen to study in depth. Her artistic work is somewhat of a paradox: digital, actual and urbane at first sight, and at the same time referring to timeless issues; generating natural forms; and, in spite of a careful design, with a usually imperfect finish. Not casually, her works always conserve its handicraft essence.
The first body of work she explored was collage. Back then, photography occupied the center of the oeuvre, leading her to complete a degree on the technique to produce her own raw material for her compositions.
After a long period working with digital collage, Celeste started to leave aside the digital tools returning to the use of organic materials such as wood for her sculptures and painting for her two-dimensional work.
Currently she continues to work combining the three materialities, not complementing them inside of one single work but creating a cohabitation between the different art pieces. She was always interested in the treatment of the works as part of a whole and the interaction between techniques acts as a bridge inside her practice. Celeste paints, builds, takes pictures, exploring worlds that are not yet here and that only materialise through her manual labour. Craftswoman, artist or photographer: The search is always the same, to find those subtle and hidden worlds.
She has exhibited in Buenos Aires, Berlin, Miami, New York, Carlisle (UK), Amsterdam, Zurich, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Umeå, Bergen, Stavanger, Oslo, Helsinki and Nagoya (Japan).
She has done residences in Norway, The Netherlands and Switzerland.