NINA TICHAVA
Artist Statement
Pulling imagery and motif from organic form, architecture, media and design I create densely layered, mixed-media paintings that are invested in process and grounded in traditional craft. I’m interested in the overlap of nature and culture and the patterns present in both; the tension between them drives my exploration of color, surface and materiality.
Employing labor-intensive technique, I blend painting, collage and printmaking processes. I primarily work on wood and paper in multiple panels, incorporating paint, charcoal, ink, tape, ballpoint pen, canvas and metal. Simultaneously free and constrained, my paintings are composed of numerous overlapping layers, many of which are obscured in the cumulative evolution of a finished piece. Often a prominent element of my work is the application of thousands of beads of paint, painstakingly and individually applied with a brush and used to create screens, patterns and color gradations.
Reproduction and repetition being central themes, my paintings are responses to things mass-produced and processed to an ideal. My paintings are, by nature, imprecise and hand-made objects. Perfection is unattainable therefore each piece is unique—it is this inherent quality that continues to engage me in painting.
Nina Tichava was raised in both rural northern New Mexico and the Bay Area in California. She was influenced by her father, a construction worker and mathematician —and by her mother, who is an artist and designer. The reflections of these dualities—country to city, pragmatist to artist, nature to technology—are essential to and evident in her paintings. Nina received her BFA from California College of the Arts [+ Crafts].
Employing labor-intensive technique, I blend painting, collage and printmaking processes. I primarily work on wood and paper in multiple panels, incorporating paint, charcoal, ink, tape, ballpoint pen, canvas and metal. Simultaneously free and constrained, my paintings are composed of numerous overlapping layers, many of which are obscured in the cumulative evolution of a finished piece. Often a prominent element of my work is the application of thousands of beads of paint, painstakingly and individually applied with a brush and used to create screens, patterns and color gradations.
Reproduction and repetition being central themes, my paintings are responses to things mass-produced and processed to an ideal. My paintings are, by nature, imprecise and hand-made objects. Perfection is unattainable therefore each piece is unique—it is this inherent quality that continues to engage me in painting.
Nina Tichava was raised in both rural northern New Mexico and the Bay Area in California. She was influenced by her father, a construction worker and mathematician —and by her mother, who is an artist and designer. The reflections of these dualities—country to city, pragmatist to artist, nature to technology—are essential to and evident in her paintings. Nina received her BFA from California College of the Arts [+ Crafts].