GARDEN OF THE GODS

BIOGRAPHY

Nikola Wojewoda is a multi-disciplinary artist of second-generation Polish and Russian descent. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, she has exhibited in a variety of mediums. In addition to drawing, painting and printmaking, she has shown sculptural work in clay, bronze, stone, plaster, mixed media assemblage and installation. She’s made experimental short films shown in North America and Europe, and has designed sets for dance and theatre in Toronto and Hamilton.

Her work can be found in private and corporate collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank. Her art has been reviewed in a variety of publications, including C Magazine and the Globe and Mail. She has taught painting and sculpture in Continuing Education programs through the Toronto Board of Education

The recipient of several Ontario Arts Council Grants, she has received local awards for her sculpture, ceramics, and fine art. Nikola is a member of Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Galley of Burlington, Hamilton and Region Potters Guild, she also supports the Women’s Art Association of Hamilton, Central Ontario Arts Association and the Hamilton Artists Inc.

Her current practice includes mixed media painting and drawing, illustrated ceramics, and clay sculptures that incorporate found objects. She combines two and three-dimensional work to tell a story. Her collages using discarded and vintage wallpapers makes use of passing tastes and relentless consumption.

Her detailed and process-oriented work investigates the intersections of icon, symbol, and pattern, and the bridge between craft and fine art.

Nikola lives in Hamilton Ontario; situated upon the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas.

 
Commission for Joyce Weiland - Design and creation of swans for Swan's Cupboard - Collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton

Commission for Joyce Weiland - Design and creation of swans for Swan's Cupboard - Collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My process is like storytelling. I’m drawn to symbols, to the metaphors where layered meaning lies. Through personally constructed archetypes I explore what it is to be human, and what is at stake in these complex times we live in. Symbols provide a rich source from which to explore the human condition. Psychological, spiritual, social and political dimensions can be expressed in poetic form. My process is slow, like a traveller walking in the deep woods picking up one bread crumb after another, concepts and imagery are an accumulation of linked impulses, responses, discoveries and research. Guided by the quiet part of my mind that is more perceptive than I am, words and thought-fragments become a stream of consciousness. I shuffle them, make them brush up against each other, watch their jagged edges attach. They become the gestalt that I then work to unravel. I’m not in a hurry, I like to play, and I know that soon I will be telling myself another story about the inner and outer world, steadfastly building my own folklore.