Nicole Adriano

My work is a reflection of how my experiences as a female, Filipino immigrant have influenced my interpersonal relationships, as well as my relationship with myself. Having these identities within the United States leads me to perceive and experience the world in a way that is very specific to myself: for example, feelings of disconnection from gradual loss of fluency in a language. Through my art I strive to transform these highly specific experiences into raw emotions that could be universally understood. My goal is to build or reinforce empathy between minorities and non-minorities, as well as to better my perception and understanding of myself.

An apparent theme in my work is the violence inflicted upon the female figure, inspired by Kiki Smith’s sculptures of women where their limbs are stretched in unnatural ways, some even having incisions which expose their insides. I have experimented with the distortion of the figure, as well as repetition to convey the numerous and diverse ways that violence can manifest itself. I have also included the process itself in some parts of this series, in which I use my hands to apply the paint, almost as if I am the aggressor myself. With these works, as well as others which convey my relationships with race, having two cultures, and Catholicism, I wanted to integrate a satirical quality. To do this, I use bright, bold colors to contrast ominous subjects. Namely, a piece, Twinkie, exhibits the famous childhood snack to represent the emotion of feeling torn between cultures: “yellow on the outside, white on the inside”. This was inspired from my recent visits to the Philippines, where I sometimes felt alienated as my “Americanness” was always criticized, even if intentions were always humorous.

The variability in my styles and topics reflects the variety of my inspirations. My use of biomorphic forms and unmodulated colors were mostly inspired by Joan Miro, particularly his sculpture, Rope and People I, where he paints monstrous distorted creatures combined with abstract shapes. It was this same piece that inclined me to experiment with combining sculpture with paints; essentially I break canvases just to put them back together into more interesting shapes. The surrealist works of Rene Magritte have informed the children’s book-like nature of my paintings. He uses soft, bright color palettes to create extraordinary scenes.

My goal for my installation is for the viewer to be completely immersed in this idea of violence. Since many of my pieces have a similar color scheme and theme, I think that my exhibition would be most effective if the viewer were able to see them all in one small space. However, I also want to implement an interactive aspect to my exhibition. It starts with the Untitled series of twelve panels arranged in one horizontal line. This will allow the viewer to be able to experience each panel by itself. The viewer will follow the line, and my goal is for them to recognize a pattern. Essentially, this part of the installation is preparing the viewer for the end, in which the rest of my works will be placed. I imagine it to be a cubicle-like arrangement, as the scale of most of my works vary from small to medium; having them all together will make a larger, even overwhelming impact. The wall will be white, to maintain the feeling of safety, which I feel will heighten the satirical and disturbing tension of my work.