Bio

Nichole Maury lives and works in Kalamazoo, MI where she is a Professor of Art at Western Michigan University. 

Maury received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from The University of Iowa. Her process-driven work explores the tenuous relationship between memory, history, and personal identity. 

Maury has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally including The International Print Center New York, the Scuola di Grafica, Venice, Italy, The Chicago Cultural Center, and The Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI.  Her work has been featured in the Midwest Edition of New American Paintings (vol 89) and Printmakers Today (Schiffer Publishing) and can be found in the collections of the Midwest Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Kala Art Institute.

Artist Statement 

a steep hill / an ugly red patterned carpet / crossing the gravel alley in my bare feet / the impossibly bright blue sky / birthday cakes in tarnished sheet pans / my sister’s foot in the doorway / dark wood paneling and duct taped keyholes / salmon-colored roses / desserts cooling on the porch / watching the orange van disappear / brown shag carpet that never felt clean / a dark green goodwill couch too rough to sleep on / waking to the sound of crashing glass/ the sound of plastic on the windows / a moldy fridge and stained sink / a cordless phone and the end of a relationship / talking to my mom for the last time / a crow’s head in the backyard / endless leaves / difficult conversations / and woods that make me feel invisible

I have lived in many different homes – enough that I have developed a complicated and sometimes contentious relationship to the word itself. A life interrupted by frequent movement, especially as a child, has left me with memories of a personal history that are often uneven, ill-defined, and incomplete. In Its Place rearranges these fragmented memories into a kind of order, making sense where it can.