H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College hosts Oak Creek native artist Emily Nickel, showcasing work From the Inside, Out

Kenosha, WI, May 1, 2013 – Developing artist Emily Nickel will be showing her most recent work at the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College in a captivating installment entitled From the Inside, Out. The exhibition runs from May 1 through May 10 in an eight-person show and celebrates the institution's graduating Studio Art class of 2013. Coinciding with the exhibition, an artist's reception will be held on May 4, from 1-4 p.m.

In her show Nickel offers the audience a meditation on the boundaries inherent in our definitions of creator and creation via a series of interconnected paintings that follow the complex relationship between a fictive artist and a character she creates. The narrative challenges its audience to question the control and authority associated with the creator, and brings to life the challenging idea that creation can and does act independently.

Immediately evident in the artist's work is her use of narrative to communicate her themes. In the exhibition she showcases paintings that employ recurring characters or objects that solidify the collection’s unity and tell an intricate story. Nickel's work also experiments with process, and invites the audience to look closely at the collaging of media, including watercolor and acrylic paint, ink pen, and found objects, the combination of which she also uses to express transition and  change.

Artist's background:
Emily Nickel will be graduating from Carthage College at the end of May 2013 with her B.A. in Studio Art. In September she will begin studies at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, where she will be completing an M.S. in Art Therapy. Emily was born and raised in Oak Creek, WI, is an alumnus of Grace Lutheran Grade School, and attended Martin Luther High School in nearby Greendale.