Grace Nickel Visual Artist 
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Video by Aaron Adetuyi and Jody Racicot

Grace Nickel is an artist and educator. Her studio practice focusses on sculptural ceramics and installation. She has won awards in the Mino International Ceramics Competition and the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, and has had numerous solo exhibitions in Canada, including at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Burlington, and the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery. Her work can be found in permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Japan, the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan, and the Fule International Ceramic Art Museums project in China. She has participated in the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, in Korea, and her work has been selected for several NCECA Annual Exhibitions in the United States. Nickel currently teaches at the University of Manitoba and lives in Winnipeg.   

Grace Nickel’s website

“Nickel applies an archaeobotanical lens to her investigations, referencing the past and present with regard to the life cycle of living organisms and to varied forms and functions of ceramics production. Her work considers how the intimate and individual struggle for survival reflects the broader crises in which we find ourselves today, with climate change and resulting environmental catastrophes [being] top of mind. [...] Technical experimentation, conceptual refinement, and engagement with the contemporary craft community are hallmarks of Grace Nickel’s 40-year career in the ceramic arts.” 

Nominator: Tammy Sutherland, Director, Manitoba Craft Council, on behalf of the Manitoba Craft Council 

 

Saidye Bronfman Award Winner

“Her work considers how the intimate and individual struggle for survival reflects the broader crises in which we find ourselves today.”

Selected works

A wide ceramic vessel, in the figure of a moth with wings outstretched, glazed in muted tones.
A vertical and symmetrical ceramic vessel, glazed in muted complementary tones within curving lines.
A flared, translucent glass bowl, supported by a four-sided ceramic column, glazed in muted green, blue and red.
Porcelain figures of eight slender tree trunks in neutral tones rise from a floor of coarse salt crystals against a background of a darkened room.
Detail of the upper portion of a porcelain tree trunk shows variations in glaze and surface texture.
Six tall and slender columns of unglazed porcelain, punctuated by horizontal bands, stand in a two-by-three rectilinear plan.
View within a horizontal row of hollow, log-like porcelain sections shows metallic-glazed features resembling bracket fungus.
Detail shows the top of a tall, white column that serves as the column’s capital. It takes the form of a ring of standing leaves.
An object resembling a white log rests horizontally on a tabletop. An ornate collar links its two sections; dark discs rise from its middle.
A group of 13 short, dark cylinders rises from the main body. The circular top surface of each bears a dark imprint of floral shoots.

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