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'''2007''' '''''Local Ephemera''''' During an exhibition at The Drawing Center the artist described her drawing as "the in-between spaces, the slippage, around and beyond the boundaries." Subjects and objects depicted in action and drawn in a looser, colorful style contrast with the mechanical blueprint '"language" that other objects are rendered in "to bring clarity where there is none". Notable works from Local Ephemera include ''Specimen from Local Ephemera: Tension Springs (2004), Specimen from Local Ephemera: Drab Hanger (2007), Specimen from Local Ephemera: Castle Nut and Drama Queen (2007), and Specimen from Local Ephemera: Resistance with Black Ooze (2005)''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio7dc6.html?pf=2302%22|title=The Drawing Center - Viewing Program - Nicole Awai|website=www.drawingcenter.org|access-date=2018-04-03}}</ref>
'''2007''' '''''Local Ephemera''''' During an exhibition at The Drawing Center the artist described her drawing as "the in-between spaces, the slippage, around and beyond the boundaries." Subjects and objects depicted in action and drawn in a looser, colorful style contrast with the mechanical blueprint '"language" that other objects are rendered in "to bring clarity where there is none". Notable works from Local Ephemera include ''Specimen from Local Ephemera: Tension Springs (2004), Specimen from Local Ephemera: Drab Hanger (2007), Specimen from Local Ephemera: Castle Nut and Drama Queen (2007), and Specimen from Local Ephemera: Resistance with Black Ooze (2005)''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio7dc6.html?pf=2302%22|title=The Drawing Center - Viewing Program - Nicole Awai|website=www.drawingcenter.org|access-date=2018-04-03}}</ref>


Local Ephemera
as a project began as drawn plans for a sculpture exhibited in 2003, but later became a unique, stand-alone series. The illustrations included in Local Ephemera "depict various artifacts, both contemporary and historical, to reveal a world constantly in flux - the world of in between and inside out. It's a dynamic plane of shifting perception, but one framed within a technical drawing format, thus lending its structure while weaving themes often found in Ms. Awai's other work - of duality, location, and cultural reprocessing."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.vilcek.org/news/press-release/nicole-awai-almost-undone.html|title=An Artist Finds her Footing on Liminal Terrain - Nicole Awai unveils mixed-media installation at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery (Press Release)|last=Schruth|first=Anne|date=07/11/2011|website=Vilcek Foundation|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=03/04/2017}}</ref>


'''2011''' '''''Almost Undone''''' was exhibited in September, 2011 at [[The Vilcek Foundation]] Gallery, in conjunction with her earlier works of her ''Local Ephemera'' series.<ref name=":7">{{cite web|url=http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2011/08/nicole-awai-presents-almost-undone-at-vilcek-foundation-gallery/|title=Nicole Awai presents Almost Undone at Vilcek Foundation Gallery|last1=Bynoe|first1=Holly|website=A.R.C. Magazine|accessdate=29 March 2018}}</ref> The sculpture incorporates a wide variety of materials, which are as "varied as cast and sprayed paper, resin, plastic, nail polish, and clay, resulting in bold, complex three-dimensional structures, which seem to pull, stretch, and tear from the wall—and from the memory of their two-dimensional predecessors."<ref name=":7" />The sculpture puts emphasis on its multi-dimensional adaptation from the ''Local Ephemera'' series; [[The Vilcek Foundation]] described the progression from ''Local Ephemera'' to ''Almost Undone'', stating: "From [Local Ephemera], they emerge (some might say escape), reconstitute, and ultimately transition from one dimension into the next."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nichole Awai: Almost Undone|last=|first=|publisher=Vilcek Foundation|year=2011|isbn=|location=New York, NY|pages=4}}</ref> The sculpture's public displaying period started on 17 September, 2011 and ended on 29 October, 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vilcek.org/gallery/past-exhibitions/nicole-awai/index.html|title=Nicole Awai: Almost Undone|last=|first=|date=2011|website=The Vilcek Foundation|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=29 March 2018}}</ref>
'''2011''' '''''Almost Undone''''' was the title of an exhibition in September, 2011 at [[The Vilcek Foundation]] Gallery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vilcek.org/gallery/past-exhibitions/nicole-awai/index.html|title=Nicole Awai: Almost Undone|last=|first=|date=2011|website=The Vilcek Foundation|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=29 March 2018}}</ref> The sculpture incorporated a wide variety of materials such as sprayed paper, resin, plastic, nail polish, and clay, resulting in bold, complex three-dimensional structures, which seemed to pull, stretch, and tear from the wall. in conjunction with her earlier works of her ''Local Ephemera'' series<ref name=":7">{{cite web|url=http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2011/08/nicole-awai-presents-almost-undone-at-vilcek-foundation-gallery/|title=Nicole Awai presents Almost Undone at Vilcek Foundation Gallery|last1=Bynoe|first1=Holly|website=A.R.C. Magazine|accessdate=29 March 2018}}</ref> The sculpture creates its own multi-dimensional adaptation from that series, reconstituting one dimension into the next.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nichole Awai: Almost Undone|last=|first=|publisher=Vilcek Foundation|year=2011|isbn=|location=New York, NY|pages=4}}</ref> The sculpture's public displaying period started on 17 September, 2011 and ended on 29 October, 2011.


'''''2012''' '''Vistas''''' consists of a series Awai had been working on since the mid 2000s. In this series, she partially focused on the characteristics of the black oozing seen in her work. Awai was awarded the Art Matters Grant in 2012 so that she could travel to La Brea [[Pitch Lake]] in Trinidad. La Brea Pitch Lake is the largest deposit of natural asphalt in the world, and Awai was exploring what influence this site may have had on the black oozing in her work. Awai says she has “come to understand that this black oozing materiality is in actuality a site of confluence - of our histories, our physical existence and the elasticity of time, space and place in the Americas.” When talking about the series, Awai explains her conception of the idea of vistas: “Vistas are momentary glimpse experiences. There is a feeling of impermanence, of possible shift, change or impending disappearance, illusive physicality that may actually be imagined and ephemeral. Vistas could be windows to the past, the future or even moments in the present that cannot be specified.”<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=http://www.lesleyheller.com/exhibitions/20170517-nicole-awai-vistas|title=Nicole Awai: Vistas|website=www.lesleyheller.com|access-date=2018-03-29}}</ref>
'''''2012''' '''Vistas''''' consists of a series Awai had been working on since the mid 2000s. In this series, she partially focused on the characteristics of the black oozing seen in her work. Awai was awarded the Art Matters Grant in 2012 so that she could travel to La Brea [[Pitch Lake]] in Trinidad. La Brea Pitch Lake is the largest deposit of natural asphalt in the world, and Awai was exploring what influence this site may have had on the black oozing in her work. Awai says she has “come to understand that this black oozing materiality is in actuality a site of confluence - of our histories, our physical existence and the elasticity of time, space and place in the Americas.” When talking about the series, Awai explains her conception of the idea of vistas: “Vistas are momentary glimpse experiences. There is a feeling of impermanence, of possible shift, change or impending disappearance, illusive physicality that may actually be imagined and ephemeral. Vistas could be windows to the past, the future or even moments in the present that cannot be specified.”<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=http://www.lesleyheller.com/exhibitions/20170517-nicole-awai-vistas|title=Nicole Awai: Vistas|website=www.lesleyheller.com|access-date=2018-03-29}}</ref>

Revision as of 18:57, 3 April 2018

Nicole Awai (born in 1966) is an artist and educator currently living in Brooklyn, New York and Austin, Texas.[1][2] Her work spans many medias and often focuses on multiple perspectives of living in the contemporary Americas.[3]

Specifically, Awai's work captures both Caribbean and American landscapes and experiences. Her many types of media include painting, photography, drawing, installations, ceramics, and sculpture as well as found objects.[1]

Early Life

Nicole Awai in her studio at CCA7, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 23 August, 2007

She was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. She is of Afro-Chinese ancestry.[1]

Education

1991 Bachelor of Arts (BA) University of South Florida,

1996 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in painting and printmaking. University of South Florida,[4]

1997 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine [5][6]

Career

Early in her career in 2000 Holland Cotter remarked in the New York Times that Nicole Awai's then figurative paintings were sourced with "unprettified technique and a metaphorical bent" and that West Indies Colonialism was her subject. He speculated that in her overlaid images representing memories of the island of her childhood that the shifting of backgrounds and foregrounds in her paintings was a good way to think about history. He noted that in the 2000 exhibition at the Studio Museum of Harlem curated by Thelma Golden, Aiwa shared with other artists such as Sanford Biggers a looser sort of cultural signage as well as a post-1990s identity fluidity.[7]

In 2001 Rocio Aranda-Alvarado wrote about the same show in the NKA Journal of African American Art that Nicole Awai's focus was on an essential multiplicity on many levels as she involved the viewer in identity politics as part of the work's interpretation. And that her layered images included both popular culture and her own manual of iconography.[8]

Academic Positions include

Residencies include

  • the Artist-in-Residence, Art Center South Florida, Miami Beach, FL.1998,
  • Studio Museum of Harlem in 1999-2000,[8]
  • Artist-in-Residence, Hunter College, Art Department, New York, NY. 2000,
  • Triangle Arts Trust’s Big River International Artists' Workshop, Caribbean Contemporary Arts Port-of-Spain,Trinidad (2001)[1]
  • Emerge Program, Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
  • Art Omi International Artist’s Colony, Hudson / New York, NY (2004)
  • Artist-in-Residence, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Queens, NY. (2004)
  • 2007, John Michael Kohler, Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (2008)
  • Joan Mitchell Center in April (2018)[11]

Grants include

  • Payson Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine / New York, NY (1997)
  • Puffin Foundation Grant, Puffin Foundation LTD, Teaneck, NJ. (1998)
  • the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors (2011)[12]

Selected Works

1997 Notes for Material Repose sculpture was created in 1997, and displayed in June 2016 at Critical Practices Inc. and 21st Projects. Intending to make viewers aware of their own material present/ presence, Awai posits a continual back and forth between narrative and matter in immediate time and perpetual history. She chose these exhibits for their "informal viewings" of artists' works, intending to set up the normative space for cultural consumption and bring the audience into a domestic setting."[13]

2001 Panyard, is a depiction of the festival of Carnival and Awai engages with the formal aspects of Minimalism with the creation of this series. The hyper-masculine and first world celebration is reconfigured by the artist to re-appropriate the connotation of the celebration along with the minimalist movement. It is replete with heavily masculinized fantastical floats, costumes, and cosmetic aesthetics and Awai strives to revert the masculine gaze with her art to add texture to the Caribbean tradition. She incorporates Trinidadian culture along with her unique identity to create this series.[14]

2007 Local Ephemera During an exhibition at The Drawing Center the artist described her drawing as "the in-between spaces, the slippage, around and beyond the boundaries." Subjects and objects depicted in action and drawn in a looser, colorful style contrast with the mechanical blueprint '"language" that other objects are rendered in "to bring clarity where there is none". Notable works from Local Ephemera include Specimen from Local Ephemera: Tension Springs (2004), Specimen from Local Ephemera: Drab Hanger (2007), Specimen from Local Ephemera: Castle Nut and Drama Queen (2007), and Specimen from Local Ephemera: Resistance with Black Ooze (2005)[15]

Local Ephemera

2011 Almost Undone was the title of an exhibition in September, 2011 at The Vilcek Foundation Gallery.[16] The sculpture incorporated a wide variety of materials such as sprayed paper, resin, plastic, nail polish, and clay, resulting in bold, complex three-dimensional structures, which seemed to pull, stretch, and tear from the wall. in conjunction with her earlier works of her Local Ephemera series[17] The sculpture creates its own multi-dimensional adaptation from that series, reconstituting one dimension into the next.[18] The sculpture's public displaying period started on 17 September, 2011 and ended on 29 October, 2011.

2012 Vistas consists of a series Awai had been working on since the mid 2000s. In this series, she partially focused on the characteristics of the black oozing seen in her work. Awai was awarded the Art Matters Grant in 2012 so that she could travel to La Brea Pitch Lake in Trinidad. La Brea Pitch Lake is the largest deposit of natural asphalt in the world, and Awai was exploring what influence this site may have had on the black oozing in her work. Awai says she has “come to understand that this black oozing materiality is in actuality a site of confluence - of our histories, our physical existence and the elasticity of time, space and place in the Americas.” When talking about the series, Awai explains her conception of the idea of vistas: “Vistas are momentary glimpse experiences. There is a feeling of impermanence, of possible shift, change or impending disappearance, illusive physicality that may actually be imagined and ephemeral. Vistas could be windows to the past, the future or even moments in the present that cannot be specified.”[19]

2013  Asphaltum Glance, was a painting on the walls of the small gallery at Alice Yard in her native Trinidad. Awai explored the origins of the viscosity and blackness that were a long-standing staples of her painting ouevre. When a trip to Le Brea resonated with a childhood memory of a nearby pitch lake, she photographed close-up details of it as the basis for wall sized paintings for the gallery. Speaking about the connection between the black ooze and Caribbean identity, Awai says, "The pitch lake is constantly replenishing itself, just like us, taking on new form."[20] According to Awai, asphalt is, "literally the remnants of all of us, the decomposition of all flora and all fauna over the course of known time that keeps turning, churning and revealing at the same instance material and items randomly from yesterday and four hundred years ago."[21] Before leaving Trinidad, Awai painted over Asphaltum Glance as a way of continuing her themes of "regeneration and malleability."[20]

Other Notable Series/Works[22]

  • Rolling Locking Devices (2004- )
  • Bikini Beach (2006)
  • Red Room Limbo (2000–2002)
  • Culturally Unspecific (2006- )

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions[9]

Title Year Location
Vistas 2017 Lesley Heller Gallery, New York, NY
Material Re-Pose 2017 Courtyard Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin
Notes for Material Re-Pose 2016 Critical Practices/ 21st Projects, New York, NY
Asphaltum Glance 2013 Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Mi Papi, Dream On - Happy Ending 2012 80wse Galleries, New York University
Almost Undone 2011 The Vilcek Foundation, New York, NY
Backwards and Forwards 2008 Akus Gallery, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT
Local Ephemera 2005 Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Queens, NY
Panyard (with Terry Boddie) 2001 Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Nicole Awai by Christopher Cozier - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  2. ^ a b "Nicole Awai - Department of Art and Art History - The University of Texas at Austin". art.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  3. ^ Courtney, Martin (April 2, 2018). "Assembled Material" (PDF). vilcek.org. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  4. ^ "Yale University School of Art: Nicole Awai". art.yale.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  5. ^ "The Drawing Center - Viewing Program - Nicole Awai". www.drawingcenter.org. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  6. ^ "Nicole Awai". The Agora Culture. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  7. ^ Cotter, Holland (2000-08-18). "ART REVIEW; Picking Out Distinctive Voices in a Pluralistic Chorus". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  8. ^ a b Aranda-Alvarado, Rocio (2001). "Culture and Memory". NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art. 13–14: 123 – via Duke University Press.
  9. ^ a b "Nicole Awai". Artist Pension Trust. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  10. ^ "Yale University School of Art: Nicole Awai". art.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  11. ^ "Joan Mitchell Foundation selects Nicole Awai among others for 2018 Artist-in-Residence Program - Department of Art and Art History - The University of Texas at Austin". College of Fine Arts - University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  12. ^ Foundation, Joan Mitchell. "Artist Programs » Artist Grants". joanmitchellfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  13. ^ Awai, Nicole. "Notes for Material Repose". Nicole Awai. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  14. ^ Aranda-Alvarado, Rocío (2004-11-17). "Resonance: The Essence of the Playing Field". Small Axe. 8 (2): 32. doi:10.1353/smx.2004.0016. ISSN 1534-6714.
  15. ^ "The Drawing Center - Viewing Program - Nicole Awai". www.drawingcenter.org. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  16. ^ "Nicole Awai: Almost Undone". The Vilcek Foundation. 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  17. ^ Bynoe, Holly. "Nicole Awai presents Almost Undone at Vilcek Foundation Gallery". A.R.C. Magazine. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  18. ^ Nichole Awai: Almost Undone. New York, NY: Vilcek Foundation. 2011. p. 4.
  19. ^ "Nicole Awai: Vistas". www.lesleyheller.com. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  20. ^ a b ARC. "The Origins of Nicole Awai's Ooze". arcthemagazine.com. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  21. ^ "Artist Interview: Nicole Awai | Art-Rated". art-rated.com. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  22. ^ Awai, Nicole (2007). [muse.jhu.edu/article/224200 "Email from "HERE""]. Small Axe. v.11:no.3: 109–117 – via Project Muse. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help)
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