Artist Profile: Kris Ancog

Kris Ancog’s practice merges his dedication to art and ICU nursing, using the vital lessons of one to inform the other. Erin Irwin writes.

In his initial career as an ICU nurse, Sydney-based artist Kris Ancog was confronted with the fragility of human life on a daily basis. In tending to patients who were facing their own mortality, the artist has attained a unique perspective on what makes living truly worthwhile, and seeks to express this through powerful and arresting mindscapes.

“I use art as a visual storytelling method”, says Ancog, “inspired by the beauty of nature as well as stories of human connection.” In this way, his practice merges his dedication to art and to nursing, using the vital lessons of one to inform the other. 

Evolving from more traditional landscapes, his works now inhabit an abstract realm that moves beyond the literal translation of beauty and focuses on the beauty of the human mind. Drawing on Baroque and Romantic aesthetic traditions, his canvasses are densely worked with voluminous brushwork, evoking recollections of J. M. W. Turner’s contemplative seascapes and the colour palettes of the Old Masters. Softly blended jewel-tones are interrupted by forcefully executed passages of paint, the artist working his medium into a tumult of texture and hue for the viewer to interrogate. 

His works seek to make tangible the many feelings and emotions that define the human experience. They convey a window into humanity’s interior world, and portray what Ancog understands is to be found there. 

His most recent series, Vulnerability, seeks to depict the courage and conflict generated by the choice to embrace one’s circumstances with equanimity. 

The artist describes these works as “the juxtaposition of the discomfort and beauty of living a vulnerable yet authentic self”, with bright, contrasting colours finding themselves in harmony and swift brushstrokes generating their own lively rhythm. By choosing to embrace chaos, seeking out beauty within uncertainty, one can find joy in what truly matters. Ancog sees the positive, hopeful tendencies of the human spirit, finding cognitive resilience in what can be a painful and pessimistic reality. Fiery reds and bright whites tangle with darkness within these pieces, with impasto linework enabling an intense encounter with the canvas. When language fails to truly capture the subjective experience of adversity, the artist has used his craft to convey the emotional narrative of embracing vulnerability. 

Though abstract, Ancog’s works strive to embody very real experiences, transposing the workings of the mind onto canvas with a finely tuned aesthetic sensibility. Stemming from a first-hand knowledge of the measure of human fortitude, Ancog addresses fraught emotional states with confidence, and focus on the joy and wonder that best defines a well-lived life.

Featured Image: Artist Kris Ancog. Photo: Brian Doherty. Courtesy: the artist.

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