Nicole Awai
Nicole Awai is a visual artist born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in 1966 and currently living in Austin, Texas.[1][2] Her work spans many media and often focuses on topics of identity and labeling.[1] Formerly a Critic for the Yale School of Art,[3] Awai currently is an Assistant Professor in Painting and Drawing in the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Art and Art History. [2] Her background in Afro-Chinese.[1]
Education
Awai received her BA in 1991 and an MFA in 1996 in Multi-media Art (specializing in painting and printmaking[4]) from the University of South Florida,[5] and graduated from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1997.[6][7]
Art work
Awai's work captures both Caribbean and American landscapes and experiences.[1] She uses many media types in her work, including painting, photography, drawing, installations, ceramics, and sculpture as well as found objects. Many of her works require close attention, participation, or interactivity from the viewer.[8] Awai explores human migration, art history,[9] cultural, social, and historical identity and implications, while weaving in common objects and pop-culture.[10]
"The artist herself refers to the focus of her work as bearing an essential 'multiplicity on many levels.' In particular, she seems intent on having the viewer's own experience with identity politics play a major role in interpretation. Multiple associations are immediately possible, given her layering of images from both popular culture and her own manual of iconography."[8]
The viewer of Awai's work should not instantly understand an inherent 'meaning', but should need to explore and apply their own experiences and understandings to the work.[11]
Local Ephemera
This project began as drawn plans for a sculpture exhibited in 2003, but later became a unique, stand-alone series. The illustrations included in Local Ephemera "depict various artifacts, both contemporary and historical, to reveal a world constantly in flux - the world of in between and inside out. It's a dynamic plane of shifting perception, but one framed within a technical drawing format, thus lending its structure while weaving themes often found in Ms. Awai's other work - of duality, location, and cultural reprocessing."[9] The artist describes this work as "a parallel world" where one can inspect "in-between spaces, the slippage, around and beyond the boundaries.[6]"
Mixed media "specimens" are also associated with this project and include various materials such as paint, nail polish, glitter, etc.[12]
Notable Series/Works[12]
- Local Ephemera/Specimen from Local Ephemera (2002–2007)
- Rolling Locking Devices (2004- )
- Bikini Beach (2006)
- Red Room Limbo (2000–2002)
- Culturally Unspecific (2006- )
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions[3]
| Title | Year | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Asphaltum Glance | 2013 | Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad |
| Mi Papi, Dream On - Happy Ending | 2012 | 80wse Galleries, New York University |
| Almost Undone | 2011 | The Vilcek Foundation, New York, NY |
| Backwards and Forwards | 2008 | Akus Gallery, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT |
| Local Ephemera | 2005 | Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Queens, NY |
| Panyard (with Terry Boddie) | 2001 | Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY |
Group exhibitions[3]
| Title | Year | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Made in the USA | 2015 | TSA NY, New York |
| IN SITU: Women Artists in Place | 2015 | Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, NY |
| FLOW: Economies of the Look and Creativity in Contemporary Art from the Caribbean | 2014 | The Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center, Washington, D.C. |
| Out to See | 2014 | South Street Seaport Museum, Howard Hughes Foundation, NY |
| Art/Industry: Collaboration and Revelation | 2014 | John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI |
| American Beauty | 2013 | Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY |
| Be Inspiried! | 2013 | Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas, MO |
| Friends with Benefits | 2012 | Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY |
| Happy Islands | 2012 | Biennale di Caribe, Aruba |
| Me Love You Long Time | 2012 | Alijira, Newark, NJ |
| Disillusions: Gendered Visions of the Caribbean and its Diasporas | 2011 | Po Kim Arts Gallery, New York, NY |
| Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions | 2011 | Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C. |
| Global Caribbean | 2011 | Museum of Contemporary Art, Puerto Rico |
| Global Caribbean | 2010 | Musee International des Arts modestes, Sete, France |
| Global Caribbean: Satellites at Art Basel, Miami | 2009 | Art Basel, Miami, FL |
| Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art | 2007 | Brooklyn Museum, NY |
| Pilot 3 | 2007 | St Cosimo, La Giudecca, Venice, Italy |
| Tropicalisms: Subversions of Paradise | 2006 | Jersey City Museum, NJ |
| "D'Asie d'Afrique" | 2006 | Artist Commune, Hong Kong |
| 637 Running Feet: Black on White Wall Drawings by 14 Artists | 2003 | Queens Museum, NY |
Included in[3]
| Title | Year | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Greater New York: New Art in New York Now | 2000 | P.S. 1/MoMA |
| Biennale of Ceramic in Contemporary Art | 2003 | Attese, Milano |
| Busan Biennale in Korea, Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art | 2007 | Busan Museum of Modern Art, Korea |
| Open House: Working in Brooklyn | 2004 | Brooklyn Museum, NY |
Awards/Residencies[7]
| Award/Residency | Year |
|---|---|
| LMCC Process Space Residency Program | 2015 |
| AIR, Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad | 2013 |
| Art Matters Grant | 2013 |
| The Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant | 2011 |
| Smack Mellon Studio Program | 2010–2011 |
| Art and Industry AIR, John Michael Kohler Arts Center | 2008 |
| AIR, Caribbean Contemporary Arts, Port of Spain, Trinidad | 2007 |
| AIR, Chashama, NY | 2006 |
| Emerge Aljira, Newark, NJ | 2006 |
| Art Omi, Hudson, NY | 2004 |
| AIR, JCAL, Queens, NY | 2004 |
| Big River 2 International Artists' Workshop, Triangle Trust, Trinidad | 2001 |
| BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, Brooklyn, NY | 2001 |
| AIR, The Studio Museum in Harlem | 1999–2000 |
| AIR, Hunter College CUNY, Art Department, NY | 2000 |
| AIR, Art Center South Florida, Miami Beach, FL | 1998 |
| Puffin Foundation Grant, Teaneck, NJ | 1998 |
| Payson Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture | 1997 |
| Emerging Artist Grant, Arts Council Hillsborough County, Tampa, FL | 1994 & 1997 |
References
- 1 2 3 4 Cozier, Christopher (2003-01-01). "Nicole Awai". BOMB (86): 8–9. JSTOR 40427033.
- 1 2 "Nicole Awai - Department of Art and Art History - The University of Texas at Austin". art.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
- 1 2 3 4 "Nicole Awai". Artist Pension Trust. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
- ↑ Awai, Nicole (2014). "Artist Statement". Http://muse.jhu.edu/article/556976. v.37:no.4: 943–946 – via Project Muse. External link in
|journal=(help) - ↑ "Yale University School of Art: Nicole Awai". art.yale.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
- 1 2 "The Drawing Center - Viewing Program - Nicole Awai". www.drawingcenter.org. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
- 1 2 "Nicole Awai". The Agora Culture. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
- 1 2 Aranda-Alvarado, Rocio (2001). "Culture and Memory". NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art. 13-14: 123 – via Duke University Press.
- 1 2 Schruth, Anne (07/11/2011). "An Artist Finds her Footing on Liminal Terrain - Nicole Awai unveils mixed-media installation at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery (Press Release)". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 03/04/2017. Check date values in:
|access-date=, |date=(help) - ↑ Aranda-Alvarado, Rocío (2004). "The world of in-between: An interview with Nicole Awai". Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas. 37 (1): 65–72. doi:10.1080/0890576042000239582.
- ↑ Clement, Douglas P. (2016-04-01). "The Female Identity, Discussed in Art". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
- 1 2 Awai, Nicole (2007). [muse.jhu.edu/article/224200 "Email from "HERE""] Check
|url=value (help). Small Axe. v.11:no.3: 109–117 – via Project Muse.