Grace Nickel: Arbor Vitae

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Grace Nickel, "Host," 2015

detail, Jingdezhen porcelain, forms made using fabric-formed mould work, slip cast with hand- built additions, metal base and armature, 270 X 50 X 50 cm

Opening: Friday, May 25 @ 7:30pm

Walk & Talk tour with artist @ 7:45pm

The exhibition, Arbor Vitae, presents three elegant and monumental ceramic installations by Winnipeg artist, Grace 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. Her 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 fabric-formed mould-making, vacuum forming and laser marking, along with traditional ceramic processes of slip casting, press moulding and hand building.

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, this exhibition will resonate with Saskatchewan audiences and inspire dialogue with our province’s own significant ceramic history and contemporary practices.

Grace 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 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. Grace 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.