TROMP L’OEIL

About the Exhibition

This work challenges conventional hierarchies and constructs of value in contemporary art. In response to contemporary trends in painting and ceramics (especially that of ‘zombie abstraction’ or ‘casual painting’ and the dozens of ceramic artists who are glaze painting this style onto incessant cylinders), I pit three-dimensional ceramic paintings against their digitally painted counterparts. The ceramic form is fired an average of 6 times before it is flattened into a painting on canvas. Accompanying this work is a survey, which acts as an exhibition statement and a means of researching the conceptual nature of the work.

A recent essay by Seisler, The Crisis of the Cylinder, further illuminates the subject.

About the Artist

Nicole Seisler is the Director of A-B Projects, and a ceramic artist who creates sculpture, installation, and public art works that investigate time, materiality, process, and the overlapping roles of artist/viewer/participant/collaborator. Nicole received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Nicole has exhibited at venues including The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee FL; Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst IL; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago IL; MPSTN, Chicago, IL; Ash Street Project, Portland OR; Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA.

Reviews of Nicole’s work have been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Ceramics Monthly. She recently completed a large-scale permanent installation for the Airbnb Headquarters in San Francisco and was a resident visiting artist at Ash Street Project in Portland, OR. From 2015-2018, Nicole was the Joan and David Lincoln Visiting Professor in Ceramics at Scripps College/Claremont Graduate University, and she currently teaches ceramics at UCLA and Pasadena City College.