Nicholas Crombach | CAPTURED

Artist Statement

Growing up on a dairy farm in rural Canada, I became captivated with collecting small creatures and building cages and enclosures for them. The amusement these activities provided me was always accompanied by a sense of shame.

Captured investigates the paradoxical nature of our dependency, obsession and coexistence with the animal world. The human to animal relationship, riddled with political, social, moral and ethical complications, acts as a leading catalyst to my practice. My work wrestles with the plight of humans as unique conscious beings with the capacity for reason. I am preoccupied with the mental state of being caught between conflicting positions resulting in an exploration that percolates around notions of innocence, shame and the simultaneous desire of opposing standpoints.

Relying on figuration, Captured portrays characters with a psychological presence and a thematic heftiness. The exhibition offers two groupings of works, a series of large scaled works employing traditional sculpture making processes and materials while in the contrary, a series of miniature 3D printed works that employ advanced digital technologies in their making.

The almost life size figures are clay modelled works that are moulded, resin-cast and painted in monochromatic greys. The finished pieces demonstrate a degree of anatomical exactitude and feature a variety of finger marks, tool marks and textures on their surfaces. In contrast to these works are a group of small white sculpture. These miniature works are the product of 3D scanning live models with props in a Rapid Prototyping studio, after which files of the scans captured are sent to be 3D printed.

Relatable and fantastical, these figures share an emotional state of ambivalence and melancholy. A sculpture that anchors Trapped is Man with Child’s Bow and Arrows. As with much of my work, this sculpture depicts an ambiguous narrative. The sculpture portrays an aging male figure, seemingly misplaced in the wilderness. Wearing only long johns and a toque, he is carrying a child’s toy bow and arrow. He appears resigned; his weapons transformed from tools of survival into the accoutrements of a child’s game. Bow and arrows are objects used both in hunting animals to sustain human life and in the sport-hunting culture. In stark contrast to this, the toy bow and arrows suggest role-playing games that children play. Man with Child’s Bow and Arrows touches on themes of innocence and shame with regard to the moral dilemmas of hunting for survival versus hunting for “play.” Through the juxtaposition of domestic objects, human figures, and animals, the works provide a visual representations of the complexity of human nature. Captured brings attention to the inherent pitfalls and hierarchies of the human-animal relationship, calling into question the complexities and hypocrisies of themes such as domestication, hunting practices, and animal as friend and trophy.

Bio

Nicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in London, UK. Nicholas has been awarded The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, Hayden Davies Memorial Award, Samuel Lazar Kagan Award, Abraham and Malka Green Award, and a BMO 1st Art Nomination. His work has been exhibited at The Florence Trust, London (UK), Art Mur, Montreal (CA), Angell Gallery, Toronto (CA), XPACE, Toronto (CA) and Whippersnapper, Toronto (CA). His work, Jasper was a finalist in Figurativas 15 at the Museu Europen d’Art Modern in Barcelona, (ES). In 2012 Crombach executed a public art commission, Billy, Nanny, and the Kids, in Burlington, Ontario (CA).

Nicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in London, UK. Nicholas has been awarded The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, Hayden Davies Memorial Award, Samuel Lazar Kagan Award, Abraham and Malka Green Award, and a BMO 1st Art Nomination. His work has been exhibited at The Florence Trust, London (UK), Art Mur, Montreal (CA), Angell Gallery, Toronto (CA), XPACE, Toronto (CA) and Whippersnapper, Toronto (CA). His work, Jasper was a finalist in Figurativas 15 at the Museu Europen d’Art Modern in Barcelona, (ES). In 2012 Crombach executed a public art commission, Billy, Nanny, and the Kids, in

Burlington, Ontario (CA).

For more information please visit www.nicholascrombach.com