Nicoletta Baumeister
Nicoletta is a Canadian visual artist specializing in 2D painting, with a career spanning over 40 years and work held in collections worldwide. Drawing from realism, symbolism, and dynamic color play, her conceptually rich and visually striking pieces explore the science of perception, while she also contributes as a respected teacher, juror, and mentor.
Artist Bio
Nicoletta is a Canadian visual artist working primarily in 2d painting. She received her DipFA from Langara College ( Vancouver, B.C.), her BFA from NSCAD, in Halifax N.S and her Goldsmithing specialization in Germany. Her practice is concentrated on the experience and science of perception. Using the tools of realism, symbolism, metaphor, association and dynamic colour play, her work is informed by art/cultural history, psychology, sociology, neurology, phenomenology and physics. Her works are conceptually intriguing while at the same time, visually stunning.
Baumeister’s professional studio practice spans over forty years and has from its very first year, consistently garnered awards and accolades. Her work is in the Surrey Art Gallery Permanent Collection and in homes all over the world. She is proud to have maintained a successful, self-sustaining studio and has never applied for a grant or aid. She is equally proud of her support for charities and community groups through donations of artwork throughout the years.
Nicoletta is a well-respected teacher, workshop leader, and juror. “Nurturing and supporting creativity and inspiring critical thought in others is an important component to my practice.”
Artist statement
My work explores perception. Realistic representations, conceptual compositions and abstract forms are used as clues, metaphors and symbols to trace how information passes from the senses to the mind. Extending through forty years of studio practice, a distinct vocabulary of imagery and ideas threads the paintings together,
Broadly described, the work is an inquiry into the act of perception, and in specific, how is our perception of reality constructed? I consider the mechanics of the organic/electrical processes of eye and brain, to the influencing factors of experience, memory, culture, structuralism, and phenomenology and more. I am currently interested in two themes. The dynamics of the relationship between an object and the viewer, how the very act of viewing affects the object observed. Secondly, the role of pattern in perception, how does what we know affect what we see?
