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Arbor Vitae, opening reception Jan. 22

January 21, 2016 — 
Grace Nickel, Host, 2015, Jingdezhen porcelain, 270 x 50 x 50 cm

Grace Nickel, Host, 2015, Jingdezhen porcelain, 270 x 50 x 50 cm

Grace Nickel, assistant professor in the School of Art, is opening a solo show in Winnipeg on Jan. 22.

Arbor Vitae is a body of work resulting from an intense period of research over two years, including Nickel’s residencies in Jingdezhen, China, exploring fabric formwork at the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology, and experimenting with fabrication technologies at AssentWorks in Winnipeg. Arbor Vitae finished a run in Waterloo, Ont., and is now coming to Winnipeg for the first time.

“Nickel’s work advances her investigations of natural forms pitted against artificial construction and surfaces separated from and reintegrated with forms,” Actual Contemporary gallery writes about the show. “The large-scale porcelain sculptures and tile installations negotiate the relationships between the natural and the fabricated, the austere and the embellished, flowing and frozen, hard and soft, two-dimensional and three- dimensional. She has been investigating new and experimental technologies, including fabric-formed mould making, vacuum forming, 3-D printing, and laser marking. Her explorations of these methods have led to a paradigm shift in her practice. Using non- traditional techniques that begin with materials other than clay, but are ultimately translated into porcelain, has changed the way she thinks.”

What: Arbor Vitae by Grace Nickel
Where: Actual Contemporary, 300 Ross Ave., Winnipeg
When: January 22 to March 19, 2016
Opening reception: Friday, January 22, 2016 at 7 p.m.

 

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