ARTIST STATEMENT
In Time and Place is a painting series created by Nicole Bricker that explores the evolution of human emotion through common events. These events are big, like wars, or as small as a daily interactions gone wrong. What ultimately brings us together as humans, is the shared experiences of emotion through crisis. Utilizing a model, Bricker explores more than what we are taught as children of emotions and feelings.
Showcasing through dramatic impasto portraiture, In Time and Place brings the feelings that we have developed as a society and recognize in ourselves. Each 12 x 12 inch painting begins with a model emulating emotions that are relatable to common events or situations. From there, Bricker builds a drawing with charcoal that builds up in layers of paint ending with thick brush work that creates a three-dimensional layer. This brush work helps to explore the emotions by leading the eye around developing a close understanding of the sitter’s experiences.
Often when talking about mental health today, it is so common to hear a resounding “we all feel like this.”. What In Time and Place pushes is the depths of our mental states, our depressions, our anxieties through a look at one figure. While we can almost always relate, the question remains “What do we do next to help ourselves and others?”.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Nicole Bricker marries techniques of oil painting with the political, digital, and domestic realities of everyday, contemporary life to create figurative paintings. Her signature use of bright color evokes the Expressionist painters of the 20th century, while also referencing the backlit vibrancy of our lives lived online. Though intimate relationships, politics, technology have an undeniable presence in her work, Bricker never abandons the traditional painting process: often working from a live model, she painstakingly builds her compositions with layers of pigment—though never in the colors you’d expect.
Nicole Bricker received a BA in Radio Film TV Studies. While working professionally in media, she studied oil painting at the National Academy of Design in New York, where she learned to paint from a live model—a practice she continues to this day.
Select shows include: Lyman Allyn Museum (New London, CT), Rosalux Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), and Dacia Gallery (NYC).
Born and raised in Minnesota, Bricker now lives and works in Redding, CT.
© Nicole Bricker