Red Season

On our third floor, Liberian-British artist Lina Iris Viktor presents Red Season, an exhibition of eight mixed-media works on paper and paintings. Viktor’s distinct visual language weaves contemporary artistic expression with historical resonance, exploring themes of time, culture, and human experience. Drawing on influences ranging from Babylonian cosmologies to Dogon architectural principles, Viktor’s compositions are constructed from diverse elements like ancient symbols and motifs, with an emphasis on traditional materials such as gold, jute fiber, banana yarn, and silk. Her visual references are numerous, including Aboriginal painting, medieval manuscript illuminations, hieroglyphics, alchemical symbols, and more.

The works in the present exhibition include a grouping from the artist’s recent show at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings (July 10, 2024–January 19, 2025). Like Sir John Soane, Viktor is an artist as archivist—a collector, cataloguer, and student of mythologies and African cultures—threading artifacts, motifs, and fragments into her compositions.

Viktor’s palette is limited, anchored by her use of 24-karat gold and deep, rich reds, burgundy, and crimson hues. She has long used gold to emphasize the ancient and original uses of the precious metal, beyond a measure of wealth, citing it as a spiritual conduit or a “conduit between worlds” and using it to reference both the richness of African, Mesopotamian, and Incan cultures and its use in early civilizations for spiritual purposes. She has remarked that “gold holds the magic of stardust.” The artist’s recent focus on and exploration of red, particularly rosso pompeiano or Pompeian red, reflects her immersion in the historical and geological context of her current studio near Mount Vesuvius. This color choice, imbued with a sense of urgency and precarity, aligns with Viktor’s methodical approach of focusing on a single hue or palette, resulting in distinct, recognizable series of work. Viktor’s use of red taps into its archetypal significance, drawing inspiration from the Dogon people of Mali, where red is associated with femininity, transformation, and spirituality, thus connecting her work to broader African traditions and cosmologies.

Bouré, 2024

In Bouré (2024), Viktor draws inspiration from the historical significance of its namesake—a gold-rich region in present-day Guinea that played a pivotal role in the Mali Empire’s dominance. By the early fourteenth century, Bouré, along with nearby goldmines like Bambuk and Galam, was responsible for nearly half of the Old World’s gold exports. In Bouré,curator Louise Stewart notes:

Glittering vistas of mountains, lakes and a setting or rising sun prove enticing, while passages in Gold Coast / Silk Road [2024] are reminiscent of maps. Mapping, with its colonial associations, points to the long history of colonisation in West Africa and the exploitation of its rich resources.

In addition to gold, Bouré and Gold Coast / Silk Road incorporate banana silk, linen, raffia and silk cocoons in their materially dense compositions.

In the trio of works on paper—Ginna (2025), Punulu (2025), and Shonan (2024)—Viktor constructs intricate cartographic compositions inspired by ancient Dogon architecture and maps. Her geometric mazes of gilded lines are reflective of recurring fractal patterns, or an “architecture of accretion,” a term used to describe the process of building new structures by adding to existing ones, employed in Dogon villages and other traditional African communities.

Viktor’s unique visual language speaks to shared human experiences and aspirations, bridging ancient traditions with contemporary artistic expression. She challenges viewers to confront notions of eternity, ephemerality, and nonlinear time. Through familiar symbols and subconscious recognition of patterns, Viktor evokes a sense of universal belonging, highlighting the cyclical nature of human existence and interconnectedness.

For additional information on this exhibition, please contact Caroline Currier (caroline@salon94.com)