One of a series of large-scale monoprints created in 2011. López, who is by training a printmaker, uses the language of printmaking to create an exploration of the human-constructed world (especially urban-industrial landscape) as a dynamic system that is simultaneously terrifying in its vertiginous speed/growth/glut/unsustainability and awesomely magnificent in its richness and tremendous possibility.
“Structural Detours presents a more abstract and intuitive exploration of this theme in which familiar images become the building blocks for more formal compositions…in which each object is distanced from its original use. Maybe this distance is evidence of systemic breakdown? Maybe evidence of a re-prioritization of aesthetic- over use-value that I think is largely characteristic of our culture today? Maybe it is just evidence of my fascination with the visual beauty/possibility in this world—as reflected not only through the imagery but also the choice of materials on which the images are printed.”
-Nicola López
Nicola López
Born Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lives and works in Brooklyn.
Through her work in printmaking, drawing and installation, Nicola López describes and reconfigures our contemporary — primarily urban — landscape. Her interest in describing ‘place’ stems both from traveling, studying and working in other countries, including Mexico, Peru and Morocco, and from her undergraduate studies as an anthropology major at Columbia University, where she received her BA in 1998.
Her work has been exhibited throughout the USA and internationally. It has been included in group exhibitions at several galleries and museums, including MoMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City and the Denver Art Museum. In 2011, López was invited to build an installation in the rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as part of the museum's Intervals series.
Artworks
