I've just released new work in my East of the Sun, West of the Moon project. These four new pieces are the first in this project from my artist residency last year at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona. I'm very excited to start expanding this project beyond the Maine landscape.
Untitled #17
Untitled #18
Untitled #21
Untitled #22
I've been working on many of my photographs from this year, and I can now introduce new work from my Pyrotechnic project from this summer's fireworks shows. I'm continually surprised that I keep on finding new "looks" for this project. Let me know what you think, and enjoy!
Pyrotechnic #262
Pyrotechnic #263
Pyrotechnic #264
Pyrotechnic #265
Pyrotechnic #266
Pyrotechnic #267
Pyrotechnic #268
From the "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" series
I’m extremely excited to announce that I’ll be making a presentation of my work at the Rockport Opera House this coming Monday, August 22nd, at 7:30 pm as part of the Maine Media Workshops Evening Lectures Series. I’ll be joining the legendary Jay Maisel as we both give presentations about our work.
I’ve attended many of these lectures over the years but this is the first one that I’m giving myself, and I’m honored to share the night with Jay. MMW puts on these presentations with instructors that are teaching that week and they are open to the public. I won’t make any rash promises about my own talk, but Jay Maisel’s presentation is always highly entertaining. I hope you can join us there!
I'm very excited to announce a solo exhibition of my work at the Kingman Gallery in Deer Isle, ME. The exhibition, entitled "Celestial", extends from July 21st through August 14th with an opening reception this coming Sunday, July 24th, from 2-5 pm. Information about the hours and such for the gallery are below or on its website.
One of the exciting things about this exhibition for me is that it features photographs from my five primary bodies of work -- the full moon photographs of Adventures in Celestial Mechanics, the abstracted fireworks of Pyrotechic, the dark abstracts of nature evocative of the shared celestial origins of everything on Earth in Codex Natura, the circular landscapes inspired by fairy tale and myth of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and my newest project, the celestial motion captured in Harmony of the Spheres.
I can't wait to see how the show looks and hope to see you there at the opening reception on Sunday!
I've just finished up a new batch of photographs for my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project. First up is February's Bone Moon, a few of which I've included below:
Bone Moon I
Bone Moon II
Bone Moon IV
Also in February was the Storm Moon, from Marshall Point...
Storm Moon
...and lastly, these two photographs are from March's Moon of Wakening.
Moon of Wakening I
Moon of Wakening II
I somehow neglected to mention that I have a piece from my East of the Sun, West of the Moon project in the current Juried Exhibition at the Danforth Art Museum in Framingham, MA. The exhibition extends until August 21st and it should be an excellent one.
I'm very excited to announce my newest body of work, Harmony of the Spheres. It is one I've been thinking about and struggling with for years, and I've finally started to crack it. This is very much just the beginning, too -- here in my underground lair I'm already working on new variations of this. Using motion of celestial objects such as stars as my source, I'm inspired by myriad things such as classical views of the Universe, music, and printmaking.
You can see the first photographs from the series here, and you can read my project statement here.
This work will be exhibited in a group exhibition at PhoPa Gallery in Portland, ME, as part of the Maine Media Student Exhibition (I worked on this project as I was auditing the Projects course). I'll be at the opening in Portland Friday 5-7 pm, and the exhibition extends from June 1st - June 11th. I've seen everyone's work develop during the course and there are some truly wonderful photographs in this show, so definitely check it out if you are in the Portland area.
Your Daily Photograph is an international online gallery that features daily photographs from all over the world. Very soon (tomorrow? next week?) one of my photographs will be featured on the site, courtesy of guest curator Elin Spring. You can find out more on Elin's blog. There is definitely some interesting and good work featured on the site, so it is worth taking a look!
"Codex Natura #17"
I'm excited to be included in an exhibition in NYC opening this coming weekend (which I won't be able to attend, unfortunately). The exhibition, originated by the New York Center for Photographic Art and hosted at the Jadite Gallery, is based on the Macro - 2015 exhibition. I have two pieces from my Codex Natura project in the show, with one first prize and one juror's selection.
I'm also happy to report that one of my photographs was a juror's selection in the Same But Different 2016 exhibition, which you can see online here.
"The Tarn", Acadia National Park
I'll be presenting a slideshow of my photography at the Eastern Maine Camera Club Meeting this coming Thursday, April 7th, at 6:30 pm. The presentation is free and open to the public. The presentation will be in the Senior room at Bangor Parks and Rec, 647 Main Street in Bangor, ME.
I'm really looking forward to this presentation, if you are in the Bangor area, I'd love to see you there!
Codex Natura #15
Tomorrow night an exhibition opens at the Fernald Gallery of the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, ME. I'll be there during at least part of the opening (it extends from 5-7 pm). There should be quite a bit of wonderful work in this show, so if you are a fan of abstract photography I'm sure you'll enjoy the show.
I've attached a flyer below with more information. I'll be showing three pieces from my Codex Natura series. Hope to see you there!
East of the Sun, West of the Moon #4, Jim Nickelson
Boston's 555 Gallery is experimenting again with their Launch exhibition opening this weekend (opening reception from 5-8 pm on Saturday, January 23rd) and my work will be included. The show will continue until February 20th.
Susan Nalband is combining large framed pieces with smaller, lower cost limited edition loose prints. You can read more about it here on Neal Rantoul's blog as well as here on Elin Spring's blog. Here's the show description:
The Launch Exhibition is a group exhibition featuring work by several current and new gallery artists. The Launch Project is an opportunity for new and seasoned collectors making the breakthrough to collecting the work of a favorite artist or piece of their work, and building on it in an affordable purchasing program. Fine Art Photographs are being offered in small editions, in some cases of 2, 3 or 4 only, in prices from under $200 to under $500, as well as full size artist’s framed work in the gallery at traditional gallery prices.
Launch features new or rarely exhibited work by artists:
Bob Avakian, Deb Ehrens, David Mattox, Jim Nickelson, Neal Rantoul, John Rizzo, Gail Samuelson, Heather Evans Smith, Jean Sousa, Mary Ellen Strom, Sarah Szwajkos, Christine Triebert, Jane Yudelman
Codex Natura #1
It is once again that time of year when I, along with many other artists, reflect back upon the work from the previous year. I find it both useful and enjoyable to review my work and choose my favorite photographs from the year.
2015 was a very successful year for me creatively, I believe, as I continued advancing my previous two long-term projects (Pyrotechnic and Adventures in Celestial Mechanics) and also launched two new projects, Codex Natura and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Given these four big projects, I found it satisfying to choose three images from each body of work to create my list of 12 favorite photographs of 2015.
As time goes on, other images may replace some of these in the end, but these are the images that tell the story of 2015.
I'm going to start with my Codex Natura project. This project has been extraordinarily fun as I seek out new material to use for the project and also continue to experiment with printing techniques for these very dark images. Besides the photograph leading off this post, my other two favorites are below - #15 is a brand new one, too:
Codex Natura #4
Codex Natura #15
I also continue to try to photograph each full moon from somewhere here in Maine for my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project, though life and weather often conspire against me. This project has been changing for me as the photographs I'm taking are increasingly more abstract and subtle, like this one:
Buddha Moon I
I should have qualified that subtle statement, as while most of the new work can be described that way, some of the new ones cannot. As you'll see below, the next two are a bit different...first up is the Blood Moon from September's lunar eclipse (a situation I've been trying to photograph for many years), and the Moon of the Ripening I from October is, well, pretty epic.
Blood Moon
Moon of the Ripening I
East of the Sun, West of the Moon is my other new project and I'm very excited about it as well. The challenges of these dark color images as well as the circular format have been pretty invigorating. Here are my three favorites, so far, from this new project:
Untitled #1
Untitled #3
Untitled #4
...and last but not least we have my Pyrotechnic project. I continue to haunt local public firework shows seeking out new images. Here are my three favorites from 2015:
Pyrotechnic #206
Pyrotechnic #220
Pyrotechnic #241
For those of you who made it all the way to the end, I'm also including a sneak peek at some of my Arizona/Southwest images from my fall artist residency. I'm still working through the very large pile of images, but these are some early ones that I find promising.
Chiricahua National Monument - Dark skies are one of the main attractions of SE Arizona, and they did not disappoint.
Chiricahua National Monument. I spent many days making photographs along the lines of this one -- I definitely think it has potential for a project.
White Sands National Monument. I'm not sure if this photograph is a keeper, but the many-colored reflections from the sand (mica) there if you got just at the right angle made one of my favorite sights I've ever seen.
"Kindly Moon II", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.
I'm pleased to announce that I have a new exhibition up for January and February at the Gibbs Library in Washington, Maine. The Gibbs Library has a dedicated space for art exhibits and does a great job providing a variety of exhibitions for its patrons.
Included in the exhibition are 10 of my pieces from my Pyrotechnic, Adventures in Celestial Mechanics, and Nightfall projects. I'll include the press release below, and you can find out more about the hours and location of the exhibition if you are interested here.
Here's the press release:
WASHINGTON VILLAGE — The Gibbs Library will exhibit the work of Jim Nickelson, a coastal photographer. The exhibit will open Thursday, Jan. 7, and run through Tuesday, March 1.
Nickelson is a photographer whose work is driven by an interest in science, whether it be work based on the passage of time, work motivated by natural rhythms and cycles and patterns, work exploring the mysteries of nature, or work simply inspired by the wonder of the natural world, according to a news release from the library.
Included in this exhibition is work from his Adventures in Celestial Mechanics series. This series is based on a quest to capture each of full moon of the year, at moonrise or moonset, from somewhere in the Maine landscape. Moonrise and the cycles of the moon happen endlessly, month after month, year after year, and their repetitive nature results in many become numb to the magic of the moon hanging above, and this project hopefully reignites in viewers a passion and interest in the passage of the moon though the sky and its importance to peoples throughout history.
Also included in this exhibition is work from Jim’s Pyrotechnic series, which explores how fireworks, as a quintessentially man-made object, mirrored many aspects of the natural world once they were abstracted to their basic forms. The incongruity of the noisy, ephemeral, and commonplace fireworks bringing to mind beautiful and delicate forms from nature continues to inspire this ongoing project.
Gibbs Library hours are 4-7 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m.-noon and 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, 3-6 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 845-2663.
I'm pleased to announce that my ever-popular workshop, The Winter Night Landscape, is being offered by Maine Media Workshops for 2016. The workshop runs from February 28th through March 5th, 2016. You can sign up at the MMW website here.
This workshop is definitely different each year as we are so dependent on weather and what the winter brings us, but whatever it brings, it is always beautiful up here in Maine.