Nicole Katsuras studied at Victoria College at the University of Toronto and received her Honours Bachelor of Arts in 2005. Upon graduation, Nicole received the Mary Cowan Rowell Jackman Post-Graduate award. In 2006, she graduated with her Master of Fine Art from the University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins, in the United Kingdom. Nicole currently is living in Toronto and working as a full-time artist.
You have a consistent method of applying paint in all of your work; which is very thick and speaks to the paint itself. Is this a component of painting that interests you?
Yes, the materiality of paint is of interest to me, its part of a package of interests. The physicality of my paintings is a byproduct as much as an objective.
Do you refer to anything as you are painting? Landscapes, objects, any images?
While my paintings appear as images in reproductions such as post cards, or online – my work is not image based. Rather, the material and my psyche operate in tandem to inform my work.
In a painting like, “Ronchamp Mirage”, there is an interesting figure-ground relationship being that the “ground” can be seen through the “figure” and the “figure” is, to me, reminiscent of a landscape. Is this something that interests you about abstraction?
Yes, very much. I try to create “ almost” still life, landscape or portraiture that can collapse into itself and transcend the inherent limits of pictures. Within my imagery, I leave voids and gaps to let the viewer try to solve the image.
The titles of your paintings are very distinct and somewhat poetic, for example “Letters of Travel” or “Darkness Between the Fire Flies”, do these have any particular references?
Some do, some don’t. “Darkness Between the Fire Flies”, for instance, is a reference to a phenomenon of the northern forests.
What are you working on now?
I am working on two fairly big paintings.
