Collection: Nikki Brugnoli

Nikki Brugnoli (b. 1981 Pittsburgh, PA) received her BFA from Seton Hill University (2004) and her MFA from The Ohio State University (2007). She currently teaches studio art at Flint Hill School, in Oakton, VA and serves on the Artist Advisory Committee for the IA&A at Hillyer, Washington D.C. Previously, she served on the faculty at George Mason University and was the Assistant Graduate Programs Coordinator and Graduate Advisor in the School of Art. She also was the Coordinator of the Art Lab at the Lorton Workhouse, Lorton, VA and served as a Hamiltonian Mentor. Nikki has taught at The Ohio State University, the Northern Virginia Community Colleges, and The Renaissance School in Charlottesville, VA. Nikki’s work is included in many private collections across the United States, and is featured in national academic and public institutions. Her work is represented by Carrie Coleman Fine Art, Norfolk, Virginia.

Artist Statement 2022

Drawing is immediate, but it is also deliberate. Screenprint is a way to merge my photographic documentation and abstraction. I turned 40 this year and my son, 10. My father died after turning 69 in September 2021 after a long battle with lung disease. Recent works for Forces Fleeting and Suspended Inter-Spaces are a form of memorial, a wordless eulogy to this transitional period in my life.  My art is entirely autobiographical. It’s so deeply personal I’ve spent my entire artist life working to construct layers of symbolism to mask it. By thoughtfully creating these systems and rituals, I have been able to widen my studio practice. I have been working on Mylar for almost a decade. The surface allows me to play, disrupt, deconstruct, illuminate, and experiment.  On a philosophical level, my work is an exploration into the transformative power of landscape, memory, time, and the ritual of daily observation through abstraction and the widening power of the horizon in its various forms.  I seek to find mystery and presence through meticulous investigations of daily life, many of which are recorded digitally during my walks. My various approaches to seeing and recording are permutations and meditations, informed by my very specific history, growing up inside of a 5-mile radius in South Western coal town Pennsylvania, while in contrast living in Northern VA, commuting 70 miles a day. Home is where I am, and through intentional, repeated, and widening circles, I map my spaces using careful selections of my photo documentation to record any changes that may occur from day to day, in an effort to translate those observations into my studio investigations.