Kyne Bernstorff is a contemporary figurative artist with specific interest in oil portraits of traditional African cultures and tribes.
She wishes to portray a different, often unnoticed and even silenced persona, hoping to give voice and colour to the faces and characters of the obscure African tribes and societies that the world often overlooks, taking particular interest in the quiet power within the strength of its women.
Kyne's love of Africa, its vibrant people and the deep, contrasting colours of the African bush are what inspire her art.
Kyne Bernstorff
“Life is about recreating oneself; through art, I find meaning in composing vivid yet intense personas. It’s the creation or capturing of something slightly awry, either hidden or overwhelming, beautiful or forlorn, but which I deem significant, that stirs and inspires me.”
Biography
Through imagination and realism, the characters form, their features, feelings and spirits are transformed – it is the creation and capturing of something slightly awry, either hidden or overwhelming, beautiful or forlorn, but which is significant to me, that stirs and inspires me.
A contemporary figurative artist and writer, Kyne Nislev Bernstorff was born to Danish parents in Zimbabwe and grew up on a farm between the hills of the Mazowe Valley. Her love of Africa, its vibrant people and the deep, contrasting colours of the bush are what inspire her art.
Kyne is married to a Dane, who now also holds dear the red soils of Africa; they have two children and not enough animals. She lives and works between Cape Town, South Africa and their farm in Denmark.
Her love of far-flung, rural Africa still seeps into her work - from the bush with its deep, raw colours, its smells of dust and storms and passing animals, its feelings of oppressive heat and freedom to her profound reverence of the very different cultures and customs.
Kyne travels constantly and extensively through Africa, writing about and painting the people she meets on these journeys; carefully interacting with respect for the subjects, their traditions and territory. Kyne wishes to portray a different, often unnoticed and even silenced persona, hoping to give voice and colour to the faces and characters of the obscure tribes and societies that the world often overlooks, taking particular interest in the quiet power within the strength of its women.
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BA (Hons.) in Comparative Literature and European Studies from American University Paris (AUP) in Paris.
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MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town.
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Diplomas in Fine Arts from Repin, Imperial Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia and the Academy of Classical Art of Saint Petersburg in Florence, Italy.
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Her poetry and short-stories have been published in various anthologies and have been short-listed in several PEN awards.
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She has had several group and solo exhibitions in Cape Town and Copenhagen.
