Studio H Canada International Artist Residencies

We are thrilled to welcome Nicole Melnicky as Artist-in-Residence to Studio H Canada.

Artist statement

“I imagine a watery space that is airy, and blue; a space that glimmers within the shadow of ultraviolence, and luminescence of queer waters. Through my painting, I create an expansive ocean, a subconscious space, in which our queer desires of love become manifest in physical reality.”

— Nicole Melnicky

Through her painting, Nicole generates a Queer Utopia – a surrealistic space in which the possibilities of the future become tangible through the process of imagination.

She paints the “emotional climate” of the surrounding world from a queer perspective. By evoking the environment through her own visual language, she describes her own sensory experience of “location” in her painting.

By utilizing David J. Getsy’s methodology of Queer Abstraction, and by situating her work and painting practice in conversation with abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler, Nicole pools, floods, and stains her paper and canvases with raw pigments and saturated dyes. Through watery blues, smoky grays, and salted lilacs, Nicole evokes a queer emotional renaissance within her paintings.

Nicole’s queer abstract paintings speak about queer time and place, utopia, and queer suburban imaginaries, suggesting the notion of being in a state of perpetual dreaming.

The paintings featured here are created from her own visceral interpretation of the Vermont frozen landscape, comprising fragmented experiences and queer memories. Nicole views the world through a queer lens and paints that experience.

At Studio H

During her artist residency, here at Studio H Canada, Nicole has been deeply touched and inspired by the surrounding healing landscape of Metchosin, British Columbia. Nicole acknowledges that she works and plays on the Indigenous lands of the Coast Salish, S’Klallam, W̱SÁNEĆ, Te’mexw Treaty Association, and Lekwungen/Songhee people.

She is currently working on a painting series Utopia Terrains in the studio; composed from the union of healing energies, the queer subconscious, and dreaming. This series is her own projected vision for a world, for a queer utopia, for a future that is free.

“Dreaming pushes us towards a liberated future world. Driving us forward with optimism. Surrendering to the “what is” and “what if’s” by imagining a world that is fluid and free. Moving us onwards to a place of unbinding utopia.”

— Nicole Melnicky

Gallery

Selected artworks

Works in progress

About the artist

Nicole Melnicky is a queer contemporary painter and interdisciplinary artist based out of Vancouver, BC. She is a current MFA student at Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) University with a focus in Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design. Nicole received her BFA from Moore College of Art and Design, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Fine Art with minors in Textile Design and Art History. She was hosted as an artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center, Toronto Biennial of Art, Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA), The Ou Gallery (Cowichan, BC), and Studio H Canada in Metchosin, BC.

Through her paintings and research, Nicole explores queer utopia, queer abstraction, dreamtime, queer time and place, and queer futurity.

Connect with Nicole

Website: www.nicolemelnicky.com
Email: nicolemelnicky.studio@gmail.com
Instagram: @nicolemelnicky
Facebook: Nicole Melnicky
LinkedIn: Nicole Melnicky