Emily Nickel

Bio

Emily Nickel is an artist and arts educator based in Oklahoma City. She creates human and animal figures from clay and glass in order to explore themes of personal growth, societal pressures, sustainability, and community. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from Indiana University in Bloomington, and has participated in several arts residency programs including Watershed Center and Red Lodge Clay Center. Emily’s work has been exhibited throughout the US and internationally in institutions such as Leedy-Voulkos Gallery in Kansas City, the Archie Bray in Helena, the Canton Museum of Art in Ohio, and Antenna Media in Kyoto. Currently, Emily is a full time high school art teacher. She is working on a series in glass that she calls "broken stained glass windows"- narrative mosaics made from repurposed stained glass scrap. This series explores the idea that we can create a healthier, more empathetic world by the lives we live: in the way we treat one another, the planet, and ourselves.

Artist statement

My work in ceramics and glass features magical beasts and their human companions, in search of their truth and place in the world. I set this search for self in lush, dreamlike surroundings, evocative of folktale and myth. Though my work appears fantastical, it is a response to the times we live in. Our society’s responses to various crises have left me wondering why there isn’t more empathy for each other’s struggles in our institutional policies. I have struggled personally watching our choices as a society fail to respect the health of the earth and each other. On the other hand, if you look you can find communities and individuals walking boldly along their own path, building ways of life full of care for the land and its people. 

In the fantasy genre in literature, fantasy tales are often allegories for personal growth. For example, Dorothy realized upon her return from Oz that the attributes her companions sought had been part of them all along. Thus I find the visual language of fantasy a potent visual metaphor for our own search for identity and meaning in life. As the characters from our folktales grappled with mysterious worlds in peril, so must we navigate the complexities of modern life to emerge from the tangled woods with a transformed perspective. In my work I add my voice to the chorus of those among us envisioning a more humanitarian and sustainable future.