Nil & Karin Romano

Nil & Karin Romano are twin female painters, as well as DJs, based in Tel Aviv. Creating together with harmony and completing each other, they work primarily with acrylic & oil paint on large canvas surfaces. However, they do not restrict themselves into a particular medium; they also create works using pen or ink on paper. The use of strong and bold colours, together with the dark, surrealistic scenes that they unfold through their paintings capture the viewer’s eye and imagination. For the artists, each work is an opportunity to narrate a story of their inner world. Their interest revolves around the complexity of human soul and emotions and they communicate these notions through motifs such as chaos, ritualism and nihilism. They explain that such ideas resulted from a long period of depression and, therefore, of isolation from society. As they explain, “being introverts by nature, we found in art a way to communicate our messages to the world”. Their creations are mutual and simultaneous and their style is intense, ritualistic and cult-like, dealing with beliefs and religion, relationships between women, magic, as well as with the power of emotions. Romano often use themselves as a reference to create imaginative female characters, something particularly visible through their black and white series of drawings.

INSTAGRAM: @_blackorchids_

This series of works by identical twins Nil and Karin Romano is a spectacular fantasy in four hands. The pen-and-ink drawings are the result of harmonious collaboration between these two autodidactic artists. Their attention to detail has yielded crowded drawings teeming with situations and occurrences, creating a full and explosive kaleidoscope of images, animals, furniture and architectural items reflecting off one another and shattering/splitting in the mirrors mounted on the sides.

Each drawing contains an inner space built in a different architectural
style—modern, baroque or nouveau art. In some the space can be identified: the interior of a synagogue, a temple, a bedroom. Yet often the constructed architecture bursts out into nature. The space strays beyond the walls, and its dimensions are unclear and do not conform to any rules. The perspective battles with the flatness that has been forced upon it.

The most outstanding element is the symmetry. Almost every work has a clear center line, a central event stage that balances the right side of the drawing with the left. In psychology, symmetry is identified with obsession and narcissism. These works serve the artists as a form of correction, a way to relate to the other, to achieve a balance within the chaotic and the psychedelic.

The works are laden with many details that call for examination. The elements inspire a sense of ritual: various religious symbols alongside witches and black magic.

The artists do not conform to any rules, neither those of perspective nor those of proportion. They let their fantasies run free. They take symbols and images originating in various cultures and turn them into new and very personal images that extend beyond all theories of analysis, decoding or diagnosis.

[Ostrich] Hi guys. How are you doing today?

[Nil & Karin] We just woke up actually, drinking our first coffee to the sounds of beautiful music in the background, that's what we are doing every morning before starting to work hard on a painting or a drawing.

We are okay, we are not big optimists so we picked the word okay to describe how we feel today.

Where are you answering these questions?

We are answering these questions from our messy artistic room located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

How long have you been working as artists?

We have always been creative individuals that are driven by imagination . We started working intensely on art on a daily basis around 6 years ago after we experienced major depression and some mental storms.Through art we discovered we have a place in the world, in a world we never really felt belonged. Art for us is our therapist, our closest friend, our oxygen. when we don't create we tilt like flowers who don't get their water.

Are you clearly extremely close, have you always been so close?

Yes, we are extremely close to each other, we share almost everything, we are best friends, very supportive to one another and also we share the same interests , we have big room in our hearts for culture, music, art, cinema, poetry, philosophy. We share pretty much the same tastes, it's quite bizarre but fun because then it's much easier for us to create together and decide on ideas.

When did you realise you wanted to work together?

We think we found out we wanted to work together when we started working on our own clothes and creating our punk leather jackets and patches , there is a quote from one of our most favourite classic cult films called "Wild At Heart" when Nicolas Cage said this memorable quote:

"This is a snakeskin jacket, it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom"we fully agree on that sentence.

After making our own clothes we started going deeper in the term of creating and right after we started painting on a daily basis, we dedicated our time, even sacrificed ourselves for the sake of art.

Do you collaborate with people?

We never collaborate with anyone since we are pretty much of "lone wolves '' and art for us is a very intimate act. We really need to be in our twin zone in order to be concentrated and focused and dedicated, but we are open for interesting suggestions as long as they go hand in hand with our vision.

If you could collaborate with anyone, dead or alive who would it be?

We would gladly collab with people who inspire as like movie directors such as: Xavier dolan, Lynne ramsay,gaspar noe, Catherine Breillat, Wong kar wai, Cronenberg, Maya darren, Hanke, Bong joon ho and music figures from different subcultures such as: Blixa, current 93, Diamanda Galas etc. mostly with people we have common interest with, you can call us sapiosexsuals.we attract to brain and also to persona. we will find it easier to collaborate with people we have mutual interests with.

We are also inspired by expressionists such as: Otto Dix , George Grotz ...

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment we work on a series of drawings that focus on queer relationships, we also work on a series of body of drawings that catch loneliness as a form of escapism.

How does creating a piece of work go? do you both work on everything at the same time or do u take turns?

Normally we agree on ideas we want to focus on, then we decide on the subject and we take small papers for each that are used for intuitive fast sketches, right after we combine the both ideas into one sketch and we start working mutually and harmonically together with minimum fights and less talkings, four hand monster. We get into the zone, let's call it that way, with music in the background and coffee besides.We pretty much do equally the same, we invent new techniques together, that's our most favourite part. We never went to an art school and we're glad about that since we don’t believe in art schools and rules when it comes to genuine art. We are rebels by faith.

Do you communicate between yourselves or is it a very intuitive process?

We do most of the communication mostly before we start to work. When we create we are very silent and focussed unless someone makes a mistake then we become crazy bitches and we shout a little at each other haha but shortly after we relax and go back on track.

You talk a lot about your own world, could you talk a little about this?

We've been isolating a lot together from society so we had the time to enrich our inner worlds with a lot of culture such as cinema, art philosophy, music psychology and poetry. We see in our art an opportunity to narrate a story of our inner worlds. Our interests revolve around the complexity of the human soul and emotions and we communicate these notions through motifs such as chaos, ritualism and nihilism. We are not afraid to talk about pain and show the ugly truth in our creations. We never believed in the term of perfection, and we don't like to paint or draw beautiful faces. Perfection is ugly in our eyes.

We read on your website that much of your inspiration comes from a time when you were depressed. Did both of you go through this at the same time?

We have been majorly depressed since a young age but one of us experienced it on a rougher level which led us eventually to create and grow as artists. We see in art as a therapy also we try to be there for one another in stormy times.

A lot of your artworks include yourselves, what is the meaning behind this?

A lot of our art revolve around us and we include ourselves in it because we wanna tell genuine stories about our own world and relationship. We give clues, we tell our personal untold stories without the need to use words.

If you could give someone one piece of advice at the beginning of their career, what would you say to them?

Our tips for beginners is to only go by what they believe in , also don't take any advice. Haha just ours *double wink*

What sort of music compliments your work the best?

it's a very hard question since music for us is our second passion after art , we are also DJs and we enjoy mostly genres as: neo, folk, dark wave, industrial, electronic, acid techno 80's, post punk, ambient , trip hop etc. We will try to name this one tune... hmmm.... let us think.... okay okay we chose the song by Donovan-Divine Daze Of Deathless Delight., we love this tune so much and we listen to it a lot while we create, it relaxes us a lot and we also really appreciate the lyrics. At home we enjoy soft bedroom tunes for tinsel hearts.

Is there somebody/friend or artist that inspires you in particular?

We think that our closest friends which are few btw inspire us the most, they made us make a series of drawings. Our bestie, Daniel aka Ciuffo Lino, that's his nickname, he is gay and we recently made few drawings that focus on relationship between gays and queers inspired by him. We have another friend that is a delicate pianist, we watched him played the piano and it made us creating few paintings and drawings that revolve around the piano. Besides the fact that we really love piano.

Who/what is your greatest source of inspiration?

Our greatest source of inspiration comes from mostly chaotic films, from directors such as: Hanke, Noe, Maya darren, Lyne Ramsy and many others. We have a soft spot for movies that make us feel intense emotions on deeper levels. (maybe because that our personas are quite chaotic and driven by emotions)

Which city best suits the soul of your artworks?

We think that the cities that suit us the most are Berlin and London because these are cities who accept the different, the more daring the bizarre. We gotta admit that Israel is pretty much behind when it comes to art, you can not see many artists who dare to be different. It's quite disappointing if to be honest.

Is there a source of inspiration that you continue to go back to?

We really like the paintings of the Weimar area, it's always so interesting for us to observe paintings from this area.

What is your favourite painting/work of art you have ever done?

It's a hard question because for us it's really hard to pick only one. We feel attached to most of our paintings and drawings but we have a special spot for one in particular called: "The Funeral" because we did this piece of work when we were in the process of losing someone we really love which was such a unique and charismatic person, our aunt was a true rebel in her heart so we found it easy to connect with her. She got ill and we prepared ourselves for the last goodbye when making a painting about it .