Details
Working in oil, casein, and drawing media, Nicole Irene Anderson (b. 1993) creates paintings and drawings that share a collective uneasiness and human vulnerability reflective of our current times. In her work, Anderson explores complex questions of land, home, and the psychological impact of the expansion of the American West through the language of landscape centered around her home state of California. These thoughtful works suggest multiple associations and conflicting emotions regarding our environment: the often personal, and tender memories of home, the comfort and beauty of the ordinary landscape, and the anxieties of living in a world forever altered by human-caused climate change.
Anderson travels to locations throughout California, searching for areas that trigger a nervous system response where environmental damage, human alteration, or architectural remnants of the past are noticeable. With her camera, she documents these visual tensions between pain and beauty and uses the photographs as source material for her compositions. These desolate and everyday places become visual metaphors for more significant societal and environmental concerns, arguing for empathy and care that should be practiced for the land we inhabit.
About the Artist
Nicole Irene Anderson studied art at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, CA, where she received an A.A. in Studio Art and an A.A. in Art History and Professional Practices. She then attended California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA, earning a B.F.A. in Painting/Drawing. Anderson currently lives and works in Santa Rosa, California.