Crucible Remains

Nicole Collins: Crucible Remains

Presented by CMS Arts on Artsy

January 25 - February 28, 2021

Crucible Remains

#crucible2020 derives from envisioning and research-creation
initiated in 2019. It was the intentional melting and transformation of a
personal archive of encaustic paintings.  Wax, a surprisingly stable
material is open to re-forming in the presence of
extreme heat. In the time frame of the series, COVID-19 was also bringing a
kind of heat to our wax-like and vulnerable
existence. Time and energies prompted the question: When is a painting
finished? Most of the material dissolved and was captured in sculptural form,
the stretchers re-purposed, the canvas conserved for a future work. Other
matter persisted, re-incarnated, across decades, stubbornly resisting the
process. Intentional. Unexpected. That which remains.


Artistic Pairings at Herringer Kiss Contemporary Art, Calgary

Artistic Pairings

September 12 - October 10, 2020

Herringer Kiss Gallery Contemporary Art in Calgary, Canada:

“Artistic Pairings peers
into the lives and studio practices of 6 art-making couples; Renée Duval &
Dennis  Ekstedt (Montreal), Barbara Milne
& Bill Laing (Calgary), Ben Skinner & Genevieve Dionne (Vancouver),
Laurel Johannesson & Marty Kaufman (Calgary), Nicole Collins & Michael
Davidson (Toronto) and Katie Ohe & Harry Kiyooka (Calgary). The exhibition
will show each couples’ work, side by side, along with text from the artists on
how their partner in life and art influences, inspires and supports their own
art practice.”


left:

Michael Davidson

Distant Shore

2008

oil on canvas

84” x 96”


Right:

Nicole Collins

Two and One

2016

60” x 80”


Two and One: two panels that join to create one, it’s the
definition of a good partnership. We hold our own autonomy, but we are for
each other, allies and collaborators. This painting, a single work comprised of
two panels that sit snugly beside each other on the wall, is battered and
weathered, the image of determination and persistence.


Michael and I met 38 years ago, before
dedicating our lives to art, both knowing we wanted something more than
subsistence or material accumulation. We were looking for a deeper connection
to the mystery and we saw a way through the philosophy that is painting and the
life of the artist. He is a calm person, a deep thinker and a long hauler. We
have travelled far and wide, created a home and a family, created space for
others to conduct their search as artists, studied, read and talked and talked
and talked. Most of all we have made time and held space for each other to deep
dive into the studio whenever necessary, and been there for each other at the
other end. I can’t imagine my life or practice without him in it.

Visit the Gallery Viewing Room


Thirty Works: Koffler centre for the Arts Fundraising Sale

Thirty Works is an online art sale in support of visual artists
and the Koffler Centre of the Arts

September 1–15, 2020

The
Koffler is a vital space for a widely diverse array of art experiences in
Toronto and online.

I am pleased to support them through the donation of this painting.


Suspended Between, 2016, wax, oil and pigment on canvas on board,
48” h x 36” w


The image and meaning of the “net” engaged my studio work for several years, still does
really. A revived and disentangled fishing net, found washed up on the beach on
Malcolm Island at the Sointula Art Shed Residency, was then tossed and
embedded into a wax surface and then removed. The result is a present absence
of captured motion, a ghost of the fluidity of the subject and the object,
entwined.

Using Format