Christian
Nicolay
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Artist Statement:
without absurdity
humor
or chance
I could not wake up in the mornings
but without structure
conscious goals
or practice
I would be lost
My art is about paying attention to systematic confusion.
Everything around us can be understood through systems of chaos.
I construct chaos. Making sense out of random chaos may seem absurd.
Reality is itself absurd.
Christian's
Blogspot HERE
"Open Spaces" September 11th to 25th, 2008
Opening reception Thursday Sept. 11th from 7 to 9 pm.
Infinity
looms
Ever present
In its silence
Collecting dust
Positions in space and time
Relative to one another
Boundless in all dimensions
Transmitting
Patterns of vibrations
Digested by the senses
Manifest moments that begin to pass
Like echoes that ripple
Past antennas that catch
The signals of ever growing cycles
Caught between the harmonious divide
Of open and closed spaces
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Open Spaces - Novus ordo seclorum
Mixed Media on Paper
12 x 10inches
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Open Spaces - Parallel&Paradox, Self&Other
(diptych)
Mixed Media on Panel
40 x 26, 15 x 11 inches
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Open Spaces - the spaces within spaces
Mixed Media on Paper
21 x 13 inches
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Open Spaces - weathered windows weep with
water
Mixed Media on Paper
11 x 29 inches
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Open Spaces - dancing angels can
Mixed Media on Paper
29 x 14 inches
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Open Spaces - dancing angels can (detail)
Mixed Media on Paper
29 x 14 inches
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Open Spaces - gravity grows while infinity
looms
Mixed Media on Paper
48 x 33 inches
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Open Spaces - trading places
Mixed Media on Paper
12 x 9 inches
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Open Spaces - Uncle Joe's Garden
Mixed Media on Paper
12 x 9 inches
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Open Spaces - wild Kingdom
Mixed Media on Paper
11 x 15 inches
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Open Spaces - architect draw with graffiti
Mixed Media on Panel
35 x 21 inches
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Open Spaces - oh home on the range
Mixed Media on Panel
Artist's Collection
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Camp Bush
Mixed Media
11 x 5 inches
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The Drift
Mixed Media
19 x 10 x 4 inches
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Dawn Sank
Mixed Media on Panel
38 x 50 inches
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Houdini's Dress
Mixed Media
11 x 4 x 3 inches
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Sight of Line
Mixed Media
12 x 5 x 2 inches
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Bird
Flu's Bush
Mixed Media on Panel Framed
20 x 25 inches |
SOLO INTERDISIPLINARY EXHIBITIONS
2008 Galerie suos-Terre en Beeldenpark, Lithoijen Netherlands, Europe
2007 Project Flyleaf in the fridge, The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna
BC
2006 Project Flyleaf, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC
2004 ACTions of mass construction, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver
BC
(un)common (playing)ground, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC
2003 Conversations with a brick wall, Old School House Arts Centre,
Qualicum Beach BC
2002 Stoopid, The Church of Pointless Hysteria, Vancouver BC
Systematic Confusion, Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver BC
Pedestrian Hitch-hiker with a Chair, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver
BC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 Regeneration, AutoOne, Vancouver BC
2005 moja moja, AutoOne, Vancouver BC, in collaboration with CPGKenya
Return to Sender, 69 Pender Gallery, Vancouver BC
2004 Soft Emergencies, Viking Union Gallery, Bellingham WA, USA
Life on Exchange, 2 Person Show at The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna
BC, w/ Jenny Long
Cheaper than a one night stand, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver
BC
2003 Artropolis 2003, Juried Exhibition, CBC-TV Studios, Vancouver
BC
Old Guard/New Guard, 3 man show at The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna
BC
2002 Art on the Fringes, 2 Person show, Ballard Lederer Gallery,
Vancouver BC, w/ Davida Kidd
Time On It 2, The Morris Building, Vancouver BC
O2txt: celebrating the visual word, Juried, Chidlaw Gallery, Art
Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ohio USA 2001 Helen Pitt Triennial
Exhibition, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC. Catalogue
The Land, The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna BC
2000 Unstable Motion, Juried, Gallerie Verticale, Laval QC, East
and West Gallery Exchange w/ Alternator Gallery. Catalogue
I.N.W.I.P.I, The Alternator Gallery (The Lounge), Kelowna BC w/
Shayne Brandel With Seven Fingers,
OUC Graduation Show 2000, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC Emerging,
Juried, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna BC w/ Diana Thornycroft
1998 Artscape, Okanagan Regional Library, Kelowna BC
1996-97 Land Biography: Pa(y)ssages of the Okanagan, Juried, Kelowna
Art Gallery
AWARDS
2006 Canada Council Media Arts Travel Grant
New Adventures in Sound Art Commission Residency, Deep Wireless
Festival
CBC Radio One co-produced by OutFront & Charles Street Video, Toronto
ON
2004 Video Production Grant, for Temporal Transmissions, Alternator
Gallery Kelowna BC
2000 Canada Council Visual Arts Travel Grant
Helen Pitt Award (2000, 1999, 1998) / UBC Okanagan Traveling Exhibition
Award
1999 Tuition Scholarship Entrance Award, UBC Okanagan
4th Place in the 19th Annual College Photographer's Forum Contest
1998 Tuition Scholarship Entrance Award, UBC Okanagan
Kelowna & District Arts Council Bursary / UBC Okanagan Traveling
Exhibition
1997 Turik Crawford Architects Award
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Urban Detritus SOLD
Mixed Media on Panel
5 x 18 inches
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Red Riding's Hood SOLD
Mixed Media on Panel
29 x 22 inches
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my dog
ran away when lightning hit the house SOLD
Mixed Media on Panel
27 x 20 inches |
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Greater Hearing than Goats SOLD
Mixed Media
20 x 12 inches
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Self Portrait - 2007 SOLD
Mixed Media on Panel
40 x 70 inches
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Scraps,Scrimps
or 19 SOLD
Mixed Media on Rag Paper
30 x 22 inches(detail)
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Lard
Knuckles SOLD
Mixed Media on Panel
12 x 8 inches |
Fire
Pumper SOLD
Mixed Media on Paper
8 x 6 inches |
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Drawing
for AP SOLD
Mixed Media on Paper
27 x 20 inches |
Sound
Art Madness in a Box
Unique CD Insert
Sound CD and Hand Drawn CD Insert
Limited Edition of 25 |
Day and night are opposites,
Yet they flow in and out of one another every day
To be open to the possibility that a horse and a desk are actually
not that different.
Do not disregard the disregarded...
A discarded piece of tattered paper on the ground is a tool,
just like a pencil is a tool.
Blur the lines between art, theatre and the everyday
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A priest, a scientist and an artist all walk into a bar.
They sit next to a plumber, a doctor, and a secretary ...
Move away from the absolute, and into the uncertain.
Not only should you wear another man's shoes,
but I think you should help polish them once and awhile.
Process:
My art and living style is about a system where chance is free
to roam and interpret my everyday. My brand
new pants caught on fire while I was dancing at a nightclub one
evening. I could be angry and upset about
this, but I choose to be happy because I was blessed with the
chance experience of "dancing on fire". The
chance experience now ends up somewhere in my art ...(a piece
of my burnt pants becomes collage for a
drawing). Chance interrupted my everyday as that would normally
be seen as a "burn", but I choose to
remain open to the possibility that catching on fire while dancing
was a good thing...
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Scraps,Scrimps
or 19 SOLD
Mixed Media on Rag Paper
30 x 22 inches
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Self
Portrait as Anthrax SOLD
Mixed Media on Rag Paper
22 x 30 inches |
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