Last updated: 28 October 2026
Nana Wolke is the Slovenian-born, New York-based artist who stages film-like scenes, then turns the footage into grainy paintings made with construction sand. Here you will find our take on her work, her recent shows in London and New York, how to buy a Nana Wolke painting, and her small panel in this year’s War Child auction.
Our take on Nana Wolke
Wolke starts with a camera, not a brush. She sets up scenes in hotel rooms, flats and public spaces, films what happens, then paints from the footage. She primes her canvases with construction sand and gesso, so the paintings carry the grain of a low-light video still. Even so, paint comes first for her. “Painting has always been my most intuitive medium,” she told Michela Ceruti in Flash Art in 2025.
Her War Child piece, Giving You Up, is oil and construction sand on wood, and you can almost feel the surface from the photograph. A field of green, from deep emerald to lime and mint, sweeps round in a loose oval. Bright orange and red crowd in from the corners and down the right-hand side, with a touch of yellow and dark brown at bottom left. It reads like an extreme close-up, cropped so tight that the subject dissolves into colour and texture.
Light is the thread through all of it. In the same interview she describes realising “how light can sculpt a space and paint a narrative” after seeing car tail lights in a car park in Athens. She has had two solo shows at NiCOLETTi in east London, most recently in 2025, so this lot is a small way into a painter with a growing international profile.
Nana Wolke: the essentials
- Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1994; lives and works in New York, according to her gallery, NiCOLETTi.
- BFA (Hons) from the Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, with an exchange year at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig in Michael Riedel’s class, then an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London (2021).
- Selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2021, shown at the South London Gallery, and later included in 75 Years of New Contemporaries at Christie’s London in 2025.
- Group shows include Love is the Devil: Studies after Francis Bacon at Marlborough, London (2022), and the U3 Triennial at the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana (2024).
- Her work is in the collections of M Woods in Beijing, the Shanghai Center of Photography and Fondazione Coppola in Vicenza.
- Represented by NiCOLETTi in London and Management in New York.
Where to see Nana Wolke now
- Coming up: Sound & Vision 2026, a War Child charity auction online from 27 October to 12 November 2026, with the works on view at Iconic Images Gallery, London, 6 to 8 November. The piece is Giving You Up (2026), oil and construction sand on wood, 21 x 15 cm (8.3 x 5.9 in), lot page.
- Halfway Out to Heaven (solo), Management, New York, 9 September to 25 October 2026.
- Painting, Photography, Painting (group), Olney Gleason, New York, 2026.
- Nothing Left to Want (solo), NiCOLETTi, London, 19 September to 8 November 2025. The paintings came from an evening she staged in two rooms at The Savoy, inspired by Oscar Wilde’s stays there.
- Breed (solo), Management, New York, 17 May to 14 July 2024.
How to buy a Nana Wolke painting
There are no Nana Wolke prints or editions on sale. Her paintings sell through her galleries, and there is a small panel in a charity auction:
- Paintings: through NiCOLETTi, London, or Management, New York, price on request.
- Giving You Up, 2026: a small oil and construction sand on wood in the War Child Sound & Vision auction, bidding from £100 until 12 November 2026 (bid here).
Nana Wolke FAQs
Which gallery represents Nana Wolke?
NiCOLETTi in London and Management in New York.
Why do Nana Wolke’s paintings look grainy?
She primes them with construction sand and gesso before painting in thin layers of oil. The texture echoes the grain of low-quality video and photographs, which is where her images start.
Can I buy a Nana Wolke print?
Not at the moment. There are no prints or editions; her paintings sell through her galleries on request.
Where can I see her work in London?
Her War Child piece is on view at Iconic Images Gallery from 6 to 8 November 2026. Her London gallery, NiCOLETTi, is on Vyner Street in east London.
More from CoolCuration
- Nine London gallery shows to see in Frieze week: more contemporary painting in London.
- Frieze London guide: the fair where galleries like hers bring new work.
- Freelands Painting Prize review: new painting worth seeing in London.
- Art on a Postcard: another charity art sale where small works by big names go for less.
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Main image: Nana Wolke in her studio. Photo: Inna Svyatsky / installshots.art, via Museum of Nonvisible Art. Cropped and framed by CoolCuration. Exhibition dates, prices, auction results and market figures last checked: 28 October 2026.
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