Grace Nickel (born 1956) is a Canadian

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

artist and art instructor in

post-secondary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

Early life

Grace Nickel was born in 1956 in

Altona, Manitoba Altona is a town in southern Manitoba, Canada, about 100 km south-west of Winnipeg and 158 km north of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The population at the 2011 Census was 4,123 residents. Old Altona was founded in 1880 by Plautdietsch-spe ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. She earned her BFA in Ceramics from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba. Museology Studies certificate,

University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gr ...

in 1981 and; MFA from the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The uni ...

, Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2008. In the summer of 1999, she was invited to the 9th National Ceramic Conference in Perth, Australia. There she demonstrated her work in paper clay as well as presenting work of Manitoba's ceramic community.

Career

In 1991 she discovered

paper clay Paper clay (sometimes referred to as fiberclay) is any clay body to which processed cellulose fiber (paper being the most common) has been added. Earthenware, terra cotta, stoneware, porcelain and bone china clay bodies can be made into paper c ...

while at the

Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

. Since that time she has employed that material to create sculptural ceramics. She has developed a number of architectural installations, including the ''Meditation Window'' at the St. Norbert Arts Centre in Manitoba, and ''Sanctuary'', NCECA in Minneapolis, USA, 1995. Nickel completed a number of site-specific commissions, including tile installations and sculptural lighting for public and private architectural spaces. In 1999 she created a tile triptych to honour of the hosting of the Pan Am Games that was subsequently exhibited at Winnipeg City Hall. She created a work for the entrance to the Beechwood National Cemetery in Ottawa, Ontario. Nickel teaches ceramics full-time in the School of Art of the University of Manitoba.

Exhibitions

Nickel's work has been exhibited in the United States and overseas in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan, including: *''Unity and Diversity'' Cheongju International Craft Biennale, Korea *''Northern Lights/Southern Exposure, Perth Galleries, Perth, Australia *''Inaugural Exhibition'' The Canadian Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China, 2007 *''Earth Matters'' NCECA Invitational Exhibition 2010, Philadelphia In Canada, solo exhibitions at: *''A Quiet Passage'',

Winnipeg Art Gallery The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collect ...

, 2002 *''Devastatus Rememorari'', Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2008; Gallery in the Park, Altona, Manitoba 2009 *''Arbor Vitae'', Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, ON, 2015; Actual Contemporary, Winnipeg, MB, 2016; Disjecta Contemporary Art Centre, Portland, OR, 2017; the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, 2018 *''Eruptions'',

Art Gallery of Burlington The Art Gallery of Burlington, founded in 1978, is the seventh largest public art gallery in Ontario. The Gallery collects and maintains Canada's largest collection of contemporary Canadian ceramics. It is located on the City of Burlington water ...

, 2019; Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg in 2022 *''Inter Artes et Naturam (Between Art and Nature)'', Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2023

Selected collections

In Canada her work has been included in the collections of: * The Claridge Collection, Montreal (1989 to 2015) *

* Government of Manitoba art collection *

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is a public provincial art museum based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The art museum's primary building complex is located in downtown Halifax and takes up approximately of space. The museum complex compr ...

In addition her work has been acquired by:Awards, Collections and Exhibitions
/ref> * National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan * Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan * Taipei County Yingge Ceramic Museum, Taiwan

Awards

*Bronze Award, 2nd International Ceramics Competition 1989, Mino, Japan *Judge's Special Award, Sixth Taiwan Golden Ceramics Awards, Taipei, Taiwan *Inducted into the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

in 2007 *

Saidye Bronfman Award The Saidye Bronfman Award is a Canadian award for fine craft. It is one of the largest individual visual-arts prizes in Canada. The $25,000 annual prize is administered by the Canada Council for the Arts as one of the Governor General’s Awards i ...

, 2023

Bibliography

* Glen R. Brown (2012), "Grace Nickel, Clay and Light", pp 47–52 in Anderson Turner ed.
''Ceramic Art: Innovative Techniques'' (Ceramic Arts Handbook series)
The American Ceramic Society, 136 pp, . * Patricia Bovey (2007), "Grace Nickel", in Ingeborg Boyens ed., ''Encyclopedia of Manitoba'', pp 498–99. Winnipeg: Great Plains Publications, . * Helen Delacretaz and Grace Nickel (2002)
''Grace Nickel: A Quiet Passage''
Winnipeg: The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 32 pp, .

References

External links

Official web siteGrace Nickel
University of Manitoba faculty page {{DEFAULTSORT:Nickel, Grace Canadian ceramists Living people University of Manitoba alumni NSCAD University alumni Academic staff of the University of Manitoba Canadian women potters Canadian women ceramists Artists from Manitoba Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 1956 births Canadian Mennonites Mennonite artists