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Interconnecting Climate Change: Nico Cathcart’s “Symbiotic Systems”

Anya Sczerzenie | October 2, 2020

Topics: art, Climate change, cultural arts center of glen allen, hermitage museum, memento mori, Nico Cathcart, painting, politics, sculptures, symbiotic systems

Creating sculptures to stage each painting, local artist Nico Cathcart addresses climate change and connections throughout the environment in her latest exhibition at Glen Allen’s Cultural Arts Center. 

Nico Cathcart’s newest exhibition, “Symbiotic Systems,” is a memento mori in the age of climate change. Currently open through November 8 in the Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen, the exhibition features paintings of human skulls enveloped by natural forces: shifting water, melting ice, and colonies of bees and monarch butterflies. 

Cathcart, who paints murals and street art as well as traditional paintings, says she tends to focus her work on environmental issues and women’s empowerment. 

“I do a lot of environmentally conscious work,” Cathcart said. “I’ve been playing with the idea of talking about environmental issues for years.” 

A lot of the paintings in Cathcart’s exhibition feature skulls as a nod to memento mori — “remember that you will die” — a concept in art history meant to highlight the inevitability of death. She intertwines natural images with the human skulls to remind viewers that they are inextricably connected to the environment. 

PHOTO: “Glacial” by Nico Cathcart

According to Cathcart, all her paintings start out as sculptures. She uses a model human skull to stage the images she wants to paint, a process that can take a long time. 

To make the underwater effect of the painting titled “Oceans Rise, Empires Fall,” Cathcart put the model skull in a fish tank with blue-dyed water. She used a wave-maker and high-speed photography to capture just the right moment for the piece. 

For the ice-themed paintings titled “Glacial” and “Ice Melt,” which focus on the melting of glaciers, Cathcart grew borax crystals on the model skull to resemble crystals of blue and purple ice. 

“I like going the extra mile with my work,” Cathcart said. “I approach all my projects like a scientist.” 

She is currently working on a way to create a smoke-themed skull painting to reflect this summer’s west coast wildfires — and is thinking about using smoke bombs and high-speed photography to capture this effect. 

Cathcart says that glacial melt, depicted in the paintings titled “Glacial” and “Ice Melt,” are what caused the intense hurricanes that hit Norfolk this summer — the inspiration behind “Oceans Rise, Empires Fall.” 

PHOTO: “Oceans Rise, Empires Fall” by Nico Cathcart

“It’s a whole interdependent system, which is the idea of ‘Symbiotic Systems,’” Cathcart said, “Everything that happens is interconnected.” 

“Symbiotic Systems” is a complement to Cathcart’s 2019 mural, titled “Plastic Tides,” which overlooks the Cultural Arts Center’s parking lot. 

Some of the paintings in “Symbiotic Systems” include birds, a trademark of Cathcart’s work. She uses birds as a motif in her art to address her ongoing hearing loss, which she says she began to notice when she could no longer hear the sounds of birds while hiking along the James River. 

“I like to feature birds because they symbolize resilience, and it’s a little nod to my own experience and my own struggles,” Cathcart said. 

Cathcart considers activism integral to her art. This has led her to make political statements in her work, but also to use art to help community organizations. 

Earlier this year, after COVID-19 hit Richmond, Cathcart began a T-shirt fundraiser with other local artists and partnered with RVA Magazine to raise money for Feedmore. 

“When the whole COVID thing started to happen, because I’m an activist, I turned to ‘What can I do to help?’” Cathcart said. 

Feedmore is a food pantry that provides hunger relief to Central Virginia. The organization has been giving meals to students who would normally get fed at school, but due to Richmond Public Schools shutting down, are virtually learning from food-insecure homes. 

PHOTO: “Ice Melt” by Nico Cathcart

Cathcart partnered with the company K2 Custom Tees and other local artists to sell printed T-shirts. Cathcart selected the artists who would design the shirts, but allowed them free rein over what their shirts would look like. 

“Mine is a woman with a mask on, facing up, and it says ‘Together Apart,’” Cathcart said. “I do a lot of curation work in the city, so I have contacts and friends who are also visual artists. I contacted them to make a shirt design, and said they could do whatever they want.” 

So far, the T-shirt fundraiser has raised $2,600 for Feedmore. 

Both the Feedmore fundraiser and “Symbiotic Systems” show Cathcart’s concern for the issues happening in the world around her.

“I believe art has the power to create change,” she said.

Cathcart’s artwork is also being shown in the joint exhibition “Unknown Outcome” at the Hermitage Museum in Norfolk through October 2. 

To learn more about Cathcart and her work, visit her website, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Artist Miya Hannan Explores Japanese Death Rituals & More in Artspace Exhibit, ‘Linkages’

Talya Faggart | May 24, 2018

Topics: art, Artspace Richmond, bone ash, drawings, installation, Japanese art, life and death, rituals, RVA ARt, sculptures

The argument about what happens after death is a topic that’s puzzled minds for centuries. Some see it as the very end and others see it as the beginning of a new existence. As we all deal with the thought of death in our own way, one Richmond artist uses her art to show that there are many different ways to look and deal with the cycle of life and death. Miya Hannan finds connecting layers or “linkages” between the two, which led to her upcoming exhibit, Linkages, at Richmond gallery, Artspace Richmond.

Through her journey from medicine to art, Miya Hannan uses her life experiences to create bone-chilling pieces. Literally. Using cow bone, bone ash, and burnt paper, the Japan native incorporates all of this into her unique drawings, installations, and sculptures. The elements she uses plays an integral part in her Japanese culture.

“Bone ash is very, very, very important in our culture because we cremate people…we treat bone ashes as a respect,” she said.

She vividly remembers her first-hand experience with bone as a young teen when her grandfather died. After he was cremated, Hannan and her family picked up his bones with chopsticks, crushed them, and put them in an urn. Ancestor worship is a significant part of Japanese culture, as they believe ancestor worship brings them happiness which is apparent in Hannan’s work. That experience with her grandfather gave her a deeper connection with bone.

But while Hannan’s practice is influenced by Asian death philosophy and rituals, she’s also influenced by her scientific background.

Before coming to the United States, the artist received a bachelor’s degree in medical technology from the school of health sciences, at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, and for seven years, worked at a hospital in Japan. Interacting with patients in a Buddhist country greatly contributed to her perspectives on life and death. That education in science does impact her art, but it doesn’t stop her from paying homage to her elders and belief that the dead are still living among us in various forms like memories, stories, knowledge, and genetic codes.

“Bone to me is an information source…of course it’s a representation of death, but at the same time, it’s alive to me. Giving us so {many} clues about who we are and I like that connection that bone gives us between [the] past and now,” she said.

Creating the pieces with bone wasn’t the most challenging part for Hannan, it was the reactions of others.

“The most difficult part is not necessarily buying or using it, it’s how people react to it… That’s been my challenge to bring my culture which is rooted in Japan, to this country where cremation is still…kind of taboo and kind of scary and foreign,” she said.

She wants to show that there are many different ways to look and deal with the cycle of life and death. As well as make people feel comfortable with death.

“Everybody has to face it. No matter how difficult. I think it’s very important to face this fate so your life now will become more meaningful,” she said.

You can see Miya Hannan’s Linkages at Artspace starting May 25 in The Main Gallery with an opening reception from 6:00-9:00 pm, as well as a closing talk on June 17 at 2:00 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.

North Carolina artist Hoss Haley to bring machine sculpture exhibit ‘YIELD’ to Visual Arts Center this Friday

Amy David | September 3, 2015

Topics: art, RVA ARt, sculptures, Visual Arts center of Richmond

Hoss Haley, a longtime artist based in Asheville, North Carolina, will bring his three-dimensional art to the Visual Art C
[Read more…] about North Carolina artist Hoss Haley to bring machine sculpture exhibit ‘YIELD’ to Visual Arts Center this Friday

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