NICOLA VRUWINK — RE-FUSE(D)

This series of totemic forms, created by hand using traditional craft and construction techniques, explores the interplay and the tensions between environmental preservation and human intervention. Built from materials sourced from the environment and remnants from the artist’s practice, the geometric forms address sustainability, adaptation, resilience, and the complex relationship between humans and the desert landscape. They emphasize cycles of creation and destruction, serving as both a metaphor for transformation and a commentary on the physical and psychological sustainability of artistic practices.

About the artist: Los Angeles-based artist Nicola Vruwink, who maintains a studio in Landers, near Joshua Tree, is a faculty member in the graphic design program at Santa Monica College and an assistant faculty member at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle and studied in the MFA program at the University of Iowa. Nicola has exhibited at The Jones Institute in Minneapolis Street Projects and the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California.

Artist website: nicolavruwink.com