Christian Nicolay

Artist Statement:

without absurdity
humor
or chance
I could not wake up in the mornings

but without structure
conscious goals
or practice
I would be lost

My art is about paying attention to systematic confusion. Everything around us can be understood through systems of chaos. I construct chaos. Making sense out of random chaos may seem absurd. Reality is itself absurd.

Christian's Blogspot HERE

Spukhafte Fernwirkung Mixed Media on Panel 30 x 22 inches

Urban Detritus Mixed Media on Panel 5 x 18 inches

Camp Bush Mixed Media 11 x 5 inches	Barnacles for Past Pressed Flowers Mixed Media 12 x 5 x 3 inches

Dog Eared Mixed Media 11 x 9 x 5 inches	Pietro Mixed Media on Panel 7 x 5 inches

Dawn Sank Mixed Media on Panel 38 x 50 inches

Goya's Nightmare into the Sleep of Reason Mixed Media on Panel 22 x 30 inches

Re-Education Books, Chair, Nails, Pencil, Pastel 33 x 15 x 12 inches	le Nuit Chat Mixed Media on Panel 7 x 5 inches

Sewn Dry Mixed Media 7 x 11 x 2 inches

Houdini's Dress Mixed Media 11 x 4 x 3 inches	Sight of Line Mixed Media 12 x 5 x 2 inches

This is a Recording Mixed Media 13 x 10 x 2 inches	Withdrawn Mixed Media 20 x 5 x 2 inches

The Drift Mixed Media 19 x 10 x 4 inches

Bird Flu's Bush Mixed Media on Panel Framed 20 x 25 inches

the worst earings that were ever wore Mixed Media on Paper Framed 19 x 23 inches

extinct sounds, Generation Atari Mixed Media on Paper Framed 23 x 30 inches

SOLO INTERDISIPLINARY EXHIBITIONS

2008 Galerie suos-Terre en Beeldenpark, Lithoijen Netherlands, Europe
2007 Project Flyleaf in the fridge, The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna BC
2006 Project Flyleaf, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC
2004 ACTions of mass construction, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC
(un)common (playing)ground, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC
2003 Conversations with a brick wall, Old School House Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach BC
2002 Stoopid, The Church of Pointless Hysteria, Vancouver BC
Systematic Confusion, Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver BC
Pedestrian Hitch-hiker with a Chair, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver BC

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2006 Regeneration, AutoOne, Vancouver BC
2005 moja moja, AutoOne, Vancouver BC, in collaboration with CPGKenya
Return to Sender, 69 Pender Gallery, Vancouver BC
2004 Soft Emergencies, Viking Union Gallery, Bellingham WA, USA
Life on Exchange, 2 Person Show at The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna BC, w/ Jenny Long
Cheaper than a one night stand, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC
2003 Artropolis 2003, Juried Exhibition, CBC-TV Studios, Vancouver BC
Old Guard/New Guard, 3 man show at The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna BC
2002 Art on the Fringes, 2 Person show, Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver BC, w/ Davida Kidd
Time On It 2, The Morris Building, Vancouver BC
O2txt: celebrating the visual word, Juried, Chidlaw Gallery, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ohio USA 2001 Helen Pitt Triennial Exhibition, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC. Catalogue
The Land, The Art Ark Gallery, Kelowna BC
2000 Unstable Motion, Juried, Gallerie Verticale, Laval QC, East and West Gallery Exchange w/ Alternator Gallery. Catalogue
I.N.W.I.P.I, The Alternator Gallery (The Lounge), Kelowna BC w/ Shayne Brandel With Seven Fingers,
OUC Graduation Show 2000, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC Emerging, Juried, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna BC w/ Diana Thornycroft
1998 Artscape, Okanagan Regional Library, Kelowna BC
1996-97 Land Biography: Pa(y)ssages of the Okanagan, Juried, Kelowna Art Gallery

AWARDS

2006 Canada Council Media Arts Travel Grant
New Adventures in Sound Art Commission Residency, Deep Wireless Festival
CBC Radio One co-produced by OutFront & Charles Street Video, Toronto ON
2004 Video Production Grant, for Temporal Transmissions, Alternator Gallery Kelowna BC
2000 Canada Council Visual Arts Travel Grant
Helen Pitt Award (2000, 1999, 1998) / UBC Okanagan Traveling Exhibition Award
1999 Tuition Scholarship Entrance Award, UBC Okanagan
4th Place in the 19th Annual College Photographer's Forum Contest
1998 Tuition Scholarship Entrance Award, UBC Okanagan
Kelowna & District Arts Council Bursary / UBC Okanagan Traveling Exhibition
1997 Turik Crawford Architects Award

Red Riding's Hood SOLD Mixed Media on Panel 29 x 22 inches

my dog ran away when lightning hit the house SOLD Mixed Media on Panel 27 x 20 inches

Greater Hearing than Goats SOLD Mixed Media 20 x 12 inches	Self Portrait - 2007 SOLD Mixed Media on Panel 40 x 70 inches

Scraps,Scrimps or 19 SOLD Mixed Media on Rag Paper 30 x 22 inches(detail)	Lard Knuckles SOLD Mixed Media on Panel 12 x 8 inches	Fire Pumper SOLD Mixed Media on Paper 8 x 6 inches

Drawing for AP SOLD Mixed Media on Paper 27 x 20 inches	Sound Art Madness in a Box Unique CD Insert Sound CD and Hand Drawn CD Insert Limited Edition of 25

 

Day and night are opposites,
Yet they flow in and out of one another every day
To be open to the possibility that a horse and a desk are actually not that different.

Do not disregard the disregarded...
A discarded piece of tattered paper on the ground is a tool,
just like a pencil is a tool.

Blur the lines between art, theatre and the everyday ...
A priest, a scientist and an artist all walk into a bar.
They sit next to a plumber, a doctor, and a secretary ...

Move away from the absolute, and into the uncertain.
Not only should you wear another man's shoes,
but I think you should help polish them once and awhile.

Process:
My art and living style is about a system where chance is free to roam and interpret my everyday. My brand
new pants caught on fire while I was dancing at a nightclub one evening. I could be angry and upset about
this, but I choose to be happy because I was blessed with the chance experience of "dancing on fire". The
chance experience now ends up somewhere in my art ...(a piece of my burnt pants becomes collage for a
drawing). Chance interrupted my everyday as that would normally be seen as a "burn", but I choose to
remain open to the possibility that catching on fire while dancing was a good thing...

Scraps,Scrimps or 19 SOLD Mixed Media on Rag Paper 30 x 22 inches	Self Portrait as Anthrax SOLD Mixed Media on Rag Paper 22 x 30 inches