January 12th of 2026, Flora Fritz
Flora Fritz, Home Video, 11th January - 28th February 2026, diez, Amsterdam. Exhibition view
Diego: So I think the first question was—as I told you—when we were installing back in December, I had some ideas, and then you were like, “No, I really don’t want to have any kind of narrative in the work.” I wanted to see if you could elaborate a bit on what you have against narrative, or if you have anything against narrative.
Flora: I think it was because we were trying to put the horizon of the landscape kind of in one place, or for it to be continuous, and for me it instinctually felt kind of wrong. Then I tried to explain why. And I think what I called, in that situation, a
“narrative” was—for me—when the visual becomes more important than the object, somehow. That was what made me step back from putting it like that, because… I kind of like this pretend objectivity, you know? To have the rectangle be this very strong thing, and then what happens on it is like—then you really have to go into that.
So I think I’m not against narrative per se. I think there’s always a narrative, but what I don’t want is for one thing to become too strong, you know? Even in this show, I think the landscape is one thread, but there are so many hints towards other things that also tie into that, and I think that’s really important to me too.
Diego: And can you say some of these other things that you think are important within these landscapes?
Flora: I mean more like the other works that are very much connected to the way of thinking, but then a different expression of it, you know?
Diego: And then, maybe connected to the way of thinking: we can go to that question that a friend of mine asked me about your approach—your use of more digital tools, or digital mechanisms, or your interest in them. He was asking whether the practice stems from a critique of the digital realm or from an observation, so the work itself is more like a tool.
Flora: So wait—can you say it one more time?
Flora Fritz Only Nation, 2025 Acrylic on chipboard 15 x 15 cm (5 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.)
Diego: Yes. He was asking whether the practice stems from a critique of the digital realm, or whether it is more observational, so the work is more like a tool for observing these developments.
Flora: I think it’s definitely more observational. When you said it yesterday, I thought, “Oh, that’s really interesting,” that an artist would ask it like this, because for me, to describe my practice as a critique of something, I would never think of that. To make work is, for me, the most normal way to react to what’s happening to me—what I see, you know. It’s the most natural way of being in the world, somehow.
And then, of course, there are thoughts that tie into it, but that comes later. I start making, and it’s definitely more because of observation, and then I start thinking about it. It’s like what comes first.
Diego: And then do you think there is some critique that comes after—not necessarily, but… yeah?
Flora: I think it definitely reflects my suspicions about what’s happening in the digital, and how it changes how we see the world. So I think it’s definitely in there, but not very explicit, I guess. Yeah.
Flora Fritz, Offspring, 21st May - 1st June 2025, De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Exhibition view. Photo by Jonathan de Waart
Diego: And then there was this other question connected to this podcast I was listening to, right? They were talking about this painter who was painting the same place several times, which is something you have done before in The Offspring, but something you have also done now. And they were saying that to paint something several times, it becomes more than just a painting, right? It becomes more than just a place—maybe it becomes more like a painting of time, or it becomes more about materiality. And then they were also connecting it—they were also saying this thing of, like… It’s a bit like “woman’s time,” and “woman’s time” is repetition. Or they were saying: what is “woman’s time” if it’s not the repetition of things every day?
Flora: I think it also talked about Chantal Akerman, Jeanne Dielman, and her other movie, News from Home. I’ve seen all of these movies in the last year, so more recently. And I think especially News from Home—I was already thinking about these works—where she films the streets from where she lived in New York, and then there’s a voiceover of her mother’s letters to her, which are very anxious, and kind of… but also very loving. And then she just films this place that is sort of strange to her.
And yet… now I have to come back to the repetition. But yeah, it definitely—it’s true, it has a sort of different meaning for a woman, I guess. The repeating things.
Diego: On another note, for example, there is a painting that didn’t make it into the show, but it came from an image you were already working on a few years ago, right? How often do you incorporate new images into your inventory? Or how often do you get rid of images because they’re already finished, or something? I don’t know—I’m wondering: for example, The Offspring—do you feel that image is complete, or exhausted? Or do you feel that you can continue working on that image at different scales, for example?
Flora Fritz Dogtooth, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 60 cm 15 (3/4 x 23 5/8 in.)
Flora Fritz Doogtooth, 2024 Acrylic on chipboard 20 x 36cm (7 7/8 x 14 11/64 in.)
Flora: Well, I think I could come back to it, actually, but it would be very different. I don’t think that I really empty out the image or something. I think also with interests in general, they always come back but in a different way—or you find a better way of relating to them, or something.
I don’t think there’s… If there was something in there in the first place, it’s probably always going to be something in there. But yeah, I have a lot of images, and a lot of them are nothing. And it’s always a few that I still feel drawn to, you know.
Diego: And then… In the exhibition there are maybe three different bodies of work. There are the drawings, there are the landscapes, and then there are the portraits—or this other work that you’re doing, like scraps of different material. How—yeah—do you have any interest in how they connect? Or are you interested in how they repel each other? Also, they feel very different somehow in their approach. The drawings are very technical, very finished—almost academic. And then the landscape paintings also feel academic, but more in a Cézanne unfinished way. And then the portraits feel maybe a bit more free?
Flora: I think it very much depends on how I want to spend my time, you know. I have these different threads, and I can kind of tap into which one. But yeah, I think the landscape is a newer thing for me—or it’s the newest thing—and the other ways of working I had before too.
But I think it’s definitely about how I want to structure my time: what I want to do on a certain day, you know. And then to bring them together into a show is kind of… I don’t know—something really new happens to it. It’s really amazing, because they make relationships with each other too. And I really hope that it’s interesting for a viewer to try and… untie this, or tap into it.
Diego: And what would you say the landscapes are new for? Or why would you say they are new for you?
Flora: Because I wanted to do something more immediate, that didn’t have a lot of steps of searching for—or generating—an image actively, but like… to have a more direct connection.
Diego: Anything else you want to say?
Flora: No.
Flora Fritz 4686-1-4, 2026 Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 95 cm (29 7/8 x 37 3/8 in.)