art
PROFILE
by Whit ne y Sp i ve y
twelve horses You could buy a real horse for $10,000, or you could buy one of Lara Nickel’s life-size horse paintings—which are practically the same thing. “My paintings and drawings are always to-scale and anatomically correct,” says Nickel, who photographs and measures each animal before committing it to canvas. “I paint directly from the photograph onto the canvas, sketching with very light colors and gradually getting darker as I find the right placement and anatomy of the horse.” Nickel has finished two equine paintings to date (Quarter Horse “Slinky” and Lusitano “Thor”, which were on display at Wade Wilson Art in March), a process that took her about four months. She aims to complete 10 more horse paintings, all of which will be on white backgrounds, by 2016. Her inspiration comes from a 1969 exhibit in which artist Jannis Kounellis brought 12 horses into a gallery space in Rome (where he lives), stationing them around three sides of the giant room. Nickel’s painted horses will be displayed in a similar manner to Kounellis’s live horses—sitting at ground level, perpendicular to the wall, five on each side, and two along the back. Not all of the horses will be visible from the front of the room, so viewers will have to walk among the canvases, the backs of which will be exposed. “As a result of these tactics, the subject of the painting is pushed forward into the room, making the room itself the setting of the painting and making the painted image of the subject appear as if it’s actually in the room with the viewer,” Nickel explains. “Half of the meaning of my paintings comes from the way they’re installed and interact with a space.” In June, Nickel will travel to Rome to meet with Kounellis, whom she first learned about from an art history book. “There was never a specific moment where I decided to pay homage to him; it’s more that my ideas concerning painting seemed to fit perfectly with his piece,” she notes. “I had wanted to paint horses for awhile but didn’t want the paintings to be simply detailed portraits of horses. Referencing Kounellis’s piece was the perfect way to display paintings in a nontraditional way.” Nickel, who’s been learning Italian in anticipation of her trip, also hopes to secure a gallery show while she’s abroad. And what about locally? “There are a couple galleries in Santa Fe that have expressed interest in showing the final project after its debut in Italy,” she says. “But nothing is official yet.”
courtesy of lara nickel
Lara Nickel creates strikingly lifelike images in her newest series of paintings
Quarter Horse “Slinky” (top left) and Lusitano “Thor” (top right) are the first of 12 life-size horses in Lara Nickel’s series that pays tribute to Jannis Kounellis’s 1969 exhibit of live horses in Rome, Italy (above).
April 16, 2015 NOW 23