Nicole Charbonnet‘s work is something to look at as well as to look through. Each of her paintings are layered by collaging, sanding, scraping, carving, and re-painting. The superimposition of textures, images, words, washes of paint, and veils of translucent fabric and paper creates a visual threshold.
These surfaces retain or reveal a “memory” of pre-existing stages or structures. In the resulting palimpsests, some images, colors, textures are obfuscated, while others remain visible, however shaped or shaded by previous or subsequent gestures or events.
The implied simplicity of the word ‘line’ is belied by her rigorous practice. “The lines that took other artists minutes to paint, took me months and years to build up with collage, paint, modeling paste, marble dust and plaster.” To create her textural paintings, she appropriates pieces by artists known for line-work like Bridget Riley, Bruce Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, and Christopher Wool.
Charbonnet is a New Orleans-based artist whose work has been shown throughout the United States and abroad. She holds an M.F.A from Boston University.
