Nikki Middlemiss: Scaffolding for Minutiae

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Nikki Middlemiss, "Scaffolding for Minutiae (detail)," 2015

acrylic ink on tracing paper, 47½" x 17½"

An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Saturday, July 15, from 1 to 3 pm, and the artist will be in attendance. This event is free and open to the public.

The large works in the exhibition are all labour-intensive efforts – the many subtle layers are slowly built up by the artist during long hours of mark-making.

Middlemiss produces them by carefully pouring and directing diluted inks and paints onto sheets of tracing paper to form tracks along the surface. The resulting work is complex with intricate lines that appear to be physically woven together.

Middlemiss’ method is strategic, but she concedes that full control over the completed form inevitably remains elusive. It is this process (or the scaffolding) that ultimately interests the artist, and she has chosen to explore this practice in each of her selected pieces. One might recall Minimalist artists of the late 1960s and the 1970s, who also often used the grid as an organizing device.

This is art that must be encountered in the real – reproductions capture very little of its surfaces and subtleties. Viewers are invited to experience these pieces for themselves, and will be able to consider the process used in their production when the exhibition opens this weekend.

Born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, Nikki Middlemiss has a BFA from the University of Ottawa. She has been living and working in Montreal as an artist since the year 2000.