Independent: Rannva Kunoy, painter: 'I keep reining the paint in, to prevent it from being overly luxurious'

Painter Rannva Kunoy works in a studio adjacent to Clissold Park in Stoke Newington, north London. The industrial building contains around 60 studios although Kunoy does not know any of her neighbours. It is refreshing to enter her small top-lit space and see simply paintings, a rarity in today's curator-led art world.

Kunoy was born in 1975 in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago midway between orway and Iceland. "If I was not from there," she says. "I would not know where it was."  She lived in Grimsby for some years when she was young, a period she recalls fondly. Her parents then returned to live on the islands. Kunoy says that everyone leaves the islands to s..tulh abroad, usually between the ages of 18 to 30, but about 95 per cent return. Most go to Denmark but she had always loved London. She completed her MA at the Royal College of Art, settled in the city and married fellow artist, Michael Raedecker, a few years ago.

Kunoy's studio is pared down. A single chair and few books give scant clues as to her sources. She lives 10 minutes away and walks here, having first spent an hour at home looking at books and reading, admitting that she finds objects a distraction in the studio. It is almost disturbingly neat with little evidence of paint on any surface or the floor.

For the past few years she has hunkered down, choosing to work behind closed doors. "I did not let anyone in, not even fellow artists. I was looking for something specific, my own mark, and was not prepared to compromise." A large deep blue canvas dominates one wall, its surface incised with abstract marks. Kunoy has been using crystal pigment paint, the kind that is usually used for luxury cars. The paint acts almost like a reflective surface and the incised marks draw the eye in. "I keep reining the paint in to prevent it from being overly luxurious. My obsession is not being able to paint with texture, I am always pushing towards the immaterial."

February 18, 2016