Lara Nickel’s nearly 8-foot canvas, Blue Myrtle Cactus,hung on any wall, would dominate the space. Painted realistically and life size against a plain white background, the canvas is not hung on the wall. One edge rests against the wall while the bottom edge juts out, claiming space in the room.
Blue Myrtle Cactus, 2013, oil on canvas, 92 x 64"Her startling and inviting installation can be seen at Collect Gallery in Santa Fe, a new art and retail space created by Christina Swilley, through September. The exhibition, Desert Vessels, also includes the pottery of Robert King (Choctaw).
Nickel explains, “The decision to remove any pictorial background from my paintings and instead isolate them in white, is an effort to push illusionistic painting into the realm of object-hood. An illusionistic painting has the ability to exist in our world while existing in its own. Without a given background, the subject is pushed forward into the space of the viewer, the room itself becomes the painting’s setting. When there is not an imaginary world to deal with, we end up dealing with ourselves as viewers.
House of Cards, 2023, oil on canvas, seven life-size paintings each: 3 7/10 x 2 7/10"
“The isolation of the painted subject however, is still contained in the traditional rectangle,” she continues. “I still want the viewer to be confronted with a painting, not a cutout, not a mural, not a sculpture, but a painting with all of its anatomy: the deep illusion versus the flat abstraction; the rectangle/square versus its installation and place in the room; the sides, back, stretcher bars, staples, raw canvas behind versus the viewer’s body and their own imagination and expectations about painting.”
Souvenir Series, 2022, oil on canvas, life-size ranging from 1 9/10 x 1 ¼ to 1 1/10 x 1 1/4"
Nickel turns scale on its head with the intimate 1.5-inch square paintings in her Souvenirs series. “Scale determines how our bodies interact with a person, place or thing,” she explains. “We have been taught that scale designates importance. Big is sensational. The large, life-size cactus paintings have an immediate impact—they control the exhibition space, they dominate the viewer’s visual and physical field. The small paintings of souvenirs are easily overlooked; they require more work and curiosity on the viewer’s part. The souvenir paintings are meant to be displayed in a glass case, taken out, and then held in the hand while being told, ‘this is a seashell from the beach where Caravaggio died.’
Installation view of Giant Prickly Pear, 2013, oil on canvas, 75 x 87". Photo by Tag Christof.
“Painting is not just something visual, it is also something felt and experienced with the body. When the viewer is allowed to interact with art, they process its significance differently. They remember it as if it were an event. Subtle or overt, when paintings are viewed in this physical way, (as if paintings were an object, sculpture or place) the viewer’s experience and memory of it becomes personal.” —
Collect Gallery 343 W. Manhattan Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501 • (305) 240-3113 • collectsantafe.org
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