‘Arbor Vitae’ opens at Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery
An intriguing exhibition by Winnipeg artist, Grace Nickel opened at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery (MJM&AG) on Friday, May 25.
The exhibition, skillfully titled, ‘Arbor Vitae,’ will run until August 26. Arbor Vitae presents three elegant and monumental ceramic installations by Nickel. Nickel’s large-scale, porcelain, tree sculptures and installations negotiate the relationships between the natural and the fabricated, the historic and the contemporary, the austere and the embellished, growth and decay, and loss and recovery.
Nickel’s newest work featured in the exhibition advances her investigations of natural forms pitted against artificial construction and surfaces separated from and reintegrated with forms. These bodies of work incorporate new and experimental technologies, such as fab- ric-formed mould-making, vacuum forming and laser marking, along with traditional ceramic processes of slip casting, press moulding and hand building. Nickel says the feedback from the exhibition has been very positive. She spent three years working on Arbor Vitae and is happy to have it shown at the beautiful MJM&AG. “Having shown Arbor Vitae four times, I was very pleased with the space the Museum provided for all the components of the work. I’ve had very positive responses because the exhibition stands beautifully there,” Nickel said, following the opening in Moose Jaw.
Touring nationally and internationally, Arbor Vitae has been exhibited at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, ON, Actual Contemporary Gallery in Winnipeg, MB, and at Disjecta Contemporary Art Centre in Portland, Oregon, for the 2017 NCECA ceramic conference. Now presented at MJM&AG, the Museum says this exhibition will resonate with Saskatchewan audiences and inspire dialogue with the province’s own significant ceramic history and contemporary practices.
Nickel is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and is highly regarded nationally and internationally as a contemporary ceramic artist. Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally and is represented in numerous national and international collections, including the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Japan. Nickel is also the recipient of Canada Council grants and many awards and has been successful in numerous competitions, including the Mino International Ceramics Competition, Japan; the Taiwan Ceramic Biennale; the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in Korea; and the Fletcher Challenge Award in New Zealand.
Nickel currently sits on the board of the Manitoba Craft Council and has a long history of involvement with the arts community and teaching art. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Art at the University of Manitoba.