Nicola Ginzel transforms objects in an alchemical process that makes the mundane sacred and the ordinary highly charged. Using a selection of found and personal objects, Nicola gilds, embroiders, whitewashes, rubs, and casts to add layers of history and meaning. Some of the artworks have been in process for up to a decade. These objects, termed Fragments and Elements, take on a ritualistic or shamanistic aura and relate to the universal process of self-evolution.

While in Joshua Tree, Nicola has been working with local shamanic practitioners on the process called soul retrieval, which she finds akin to Bollas’ psychoanalytical notion of “Extractive Introjection”- the robbing of parts of one’s psyche.  The shaman guides in the exchange of giving back what belonged to someone else and getting back what originally belonged to the subject within the metaphysical world.

The work done here reflects this very sense of extraction and reclamation. In the open house, Nicola will exhibit objects and wall works that have been transformed during the period of the residency and will be available to share her learning and experience.

Nicola Ginzel, the Austrian-American mixed media artist, had her first ten-year retrospective and traveling museum exhibition,” Language, Symbol, Artifact,” at the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art in 2013.  Other selected solo and group exhibitions have been at Cathouse FUNeral in Brooklyn (2015); Jenny Jaskey Gallery in Philadelphia; Corridor Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland; NARS Foundation in Brooklyn; Heskin Contemporary and Bernard Jacobson Gallery in New York City.  

She was the recipient of grants from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Artists’ Fellowship Inc. and has enjoyed  residencies at SIM -The Icelandic Visual Arts Association and Reykjavik Art Museum Residency and at The Skaftfell Cultural Center Residency in Seydisfjördur, Iceland. Her work has been featured in New Art TV, Time Out New York, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Tribune, Art in America and, most recently, Artcritical in Dec 2015.  

Artist Website: https://www.nicolaginzel.com