b. 1986, New Plymouth
Lives and works in Vienna.
Nik Geene uses repurposed materials and site-specific installations to explore themes of displacement, identity, the arbitrary nature of value, and social structures. Notable works include "I got life, mother [...]," a modular floor piece created from discarded clothing donations in Kreuzberg, Berlin, during the 2016 refugee crisis, and American hospital scrubs sourced in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Geene's installations frequently engage with public spaces and external economic indices, such as real estate value.
Geene's "Family" series further delves into familial and societal dynamics, with works like "Pique Nique [...]," featuring curved wood structures with stretched clothing, and "Family is a 3-Letter Word," a concrete installation at Place de la Republique in Paris. The sculpture’s fragile, wet concrete form invited interaction and alteration by external forces, blurring the line between monumentality and impermanence. This unsanctioned public sculpture, juxtaposed with nearby monuments, highlights Geene's engagement with context as well as his interest in the entropy and resilience of materials.