For over 35 years, Nicole Collins’ (she/her) art practice has engaged deeply with materials, collaborating with their ability to reflect meaning. Focusing on the effect and subsequent affect, of time, memory, accumulation, force, and heat on visceral and ephemeral materials including wax, charcoal, plants, oils and metals, through painting, drawing, digital reproduction, installation, intervention, video, and sound, works have engaged with themes of mortality, grief, ephemerality, decreation, and resilience.
Collins completed the BFA Hons. in Fine Art at University ofGuelph (1988) and the Master of Visual Studies at University of Toronto (2009)
Since 1994 she has exhibited extensively with commercial galleries as well as solo exhibitions including: Bakuroyokoyama Gallery Tokyo(2023); The Koffler Gallery (2018); The Art Gallery of Ontario (2013); The University of Waterloo Art Gallery (2013); The Embassy of Canada in Tokyo (2001) and group exhibitions in Toronto, Hamilton, St. Johns, New York, Miami, London andZurich. Her work has been featured in magazines (print and online), newspapers and books including the major survey Abstract Painting in Canada (Roald Nasgaard) and the 3rd edition of A Concise History of Canadian Painting(Dennis Reid).
Collins lives in Toronto, Canada and is Associate Professor of Material and Visual Culture in the Drawing& Painting program at the Ontario College of Art & Design University(OCADU). Since 2024 Collins has served as co-director of the OCADU SustainableColour Lab, where she conducts research into local natural pigment and binder sources and their applications to art practice. Sustainable Paint Practices is an interdisciplinary studio-based course that introduces students to alternative painting methods drawing on historical methods (oil, egg tempera, encaustic, silverpoint) to current practices in local plant-based and mineral colour sources.
Instagram: @nicolecollinsartist