High Concept Laboratories: Nicole Mauser

Light Drips Down

High Concept Laboratories
2233 S. Throop
2/11 at 6pm: Ana Marine Whitehead & Nicole Mauser
2/12 at 6pm: Ana Marine Whitehead & Nicole Mauser
2/13 at 6pm: Ana Marine Whitehead & Nicole Mauser
Suggested donation $10

Nicole Mauser (b. 1983, Indianapolis, IN, US).

Mauser’s paintings investigate the tensions at play between the physicality of paint itself and the speed at which images congeal within a language of abstraction. Mauser obtained her MFA from The University of Chicago in (2010) and BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design (2006). Paintings have been featured at Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn); Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA); Carrie Secrist Gallery (Chicago); Missouri Western State University (St. Joseph); AR Gallery (Milan); and Centre pour l’Art et le Culture (Aix-en-Provence, France). Works have been featured in New American Paintings, The New York Times, and The Kansas City Star amoung others. Her writings have been published in Newcity, Art Practical, 8 1⁄2 x 11, and Bad at Sports Blog. Mauser was a recipient of The University of Chicago Student Arts Council Student Grant for painting research in Berlin, Germany (2010), and a Post-MFA Teaching Fellowship at The University of Chicago (2011). Mauser was co-founder of the artist-run gallery, PLUG Projects (2011-2012) as well as KCPAC (Kansas City Plein Air Coaterie). Collections include The Alexander (Indianapolis) and The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park). She lives/works in Chicago, IL and is a Lecturer at The University of Chicago.

I’ve expanded an on-going series of collages beyond the frame to confront architecture. HCL’s sponsorship has enabled me to focus and push the material boundaries of scale to ultimately engage the viewer through playful interventions. Formally, the images function similar to paintings, possessing illusionistic depth of space, yet the space is compressed to cause uncanny visual echoes to the nearby surroundings by drawing upon and enlarging existing architecture/landscape in combination with color fields. My long-term research on haptics, optics, and color will inform the imagery/installation to transcend theory and become application immersion.

My painting practice emphasizes facture, surface, and illusionistic depths. Recently, I have been taking this material-driven, formal and conceptual exploration into the realm of collage. I view collage as a form of ‘trespassing visually.’ Clashing architectural elements with floral and fauna with abstract color fields to flatten and undermine hierarchies, physics, and logic rooted in the everyday. I see this approach to collage related to The Situationists historical practice of the derive, the intentional act of ‘the drift’ a wandering or going against the grid. Following this interest thread, I have identified specific sites of interest where I will record empirical and visual data, then translate that into collages. This research and production will generate several large-scale installations by projecing and installing directly onto architectural sites including window panes- making the transparent glass a ‘canvas’ that is visible on both sides. With this opportunity, I want to cultivate an experience for the viewer that emphasizes a physical confrontation with color, abstraction, and space.

-Nicole Mauser