As sources for her creative practice, Nicole Polonsky uses forms, objects, texts, symbols and media that straddle the nexus between ubiquity and being overlooked. With a Pop preoccupation with the everyday, Nicole seeks out subjects whose value – cultural and/or aesthetic – has eroded or was never especially high. The artist’s work is mostly allusive and metaphorical, articulating absence and loss through minimal means; her finished pieces are often pared down and intentionally lacking in expressive gesture. For Nicole, their formal simplicity belies the scrupulous research and nuanced, at times complex, conceptual frameworks underpinning them. Once a primary focus, printmaking is now one of many skills and processes the artist deploys in a cross-disciplinary practice which spans: limited-edition prints, bookworks and multiples; drawings and other unique artefacts; installations and performance; devising, co-ordinating and producing projects. Nicole undertakes solo and collaborative initiatives and commissions.
Nicole gained her BA from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and an MA Printmaking from the Royal College of Art, London. She has exhibited extensively throughout the UK, and in galleries in Switzerland and the USA. Her work is included in Ghost[ed.], an exhibition of stone lithographs by eight artists, which is currently on tour. Nicole’s artworks are held in private collections internationally and in public collections at MACBA, Barcelona, Spain; MoMA, New York and Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, USA; University of Oxford, Ruskin School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Essex County Council, Chelsea College of Arts Library and the Poetry Library, UK. The artist lives and works in London. www.nicolepolonsky.com
Image: Untitled (Mendelssohngs), 2013, graphite and carbon paper tracings with gouache on Arches – Ingres MBM 85 gsm. Private collection. © British Library Board (RM9h6 and H-1096.F(2))