Description
‘Dark Summer’ by Nico Cathcart
Artist: Nico Cathcart
Title: ‘Dark Summer’
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 18″ diameter
Framing: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2023
About the Artwork:
“This piece is based off of a temporary sculpture made of an antiqued gold skull the first blooms of warm weather in Richmond, VA- Hellebores, Sweet William, Tulips, Anemones, and dogwood. All of which were sustainably grown within 20 miles of my studio. My symbiotic series consists of skulls surrounded by nature as a contemporary memento mori, framed by the context of the Anthropocene Era. The pieces show that human life is unbreakable tied to the environment around us. Our actions affect the climate and what the climate gives back affects us.” – Nico Cathcart
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
Nico Cathcart is a Deaf/Hard of Hearing painter and muralist hailing from Toronto, Ontario, and currently living in Richmond, Virginia. She strives to create socially informed intersectional work in her highly-colorful realistic activations on both walls and canvas. An experienced mural painter, she has worked on walls across the country with work to be found in Austin, Sacramento, Rochester, Birmingham, Memphis, Atlanta, Napa CA, and Wynwood Miami. Nico has been shown at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, the Hermitage Museum, CAN Network in Norfolk, ABV Gallery in Atlanta, Modern Eden and 111 Minna in San Francisco, Blockfort in Columbus, and countless other galleries across the country. In 2020, Nico was honored as an Agent of Change for her use of activism in art by the VMHC, and in 2023 her work “Age and Grace” won a National Mural Award. You can find Nico discussing her work in the emmy-nominated documentary Mending Walls, available through PBS, as well as a TEDTalk about her work, and disability on the youtube TedTALK Channel.. Nico recently worked to curate, and take part in the national campaign, Artists 4 ERA, you can purchase prints of her portrait of trans activist Aurora Higgs, proceeds of which support the passage of the 18th Amendment, and voting rights work.