Nicole Aptekar

USA

Nicole’s pieces are set in a fictional world and depict a chipping-away at the dark fears and anxieties of that space. The wall-mounted sculptures are comprised of dozens of layers of fine paper, precision laser cut and reassembled as a three dimensional volume. Basic shapes are extruded and twisted to bring volume, depth, and a sense of architectural space to the normally 2-D medium of paper.

Her focused, limited palette of white and black showcases the curves and lines of these structures’ forms and shadows. The incorporation of metallic gold foregrounds an additional ethereal layer, simultaneously complementing and contrasting the articulated sculptural form. The structures embed a digital sensibility into a very lo-fi medium–the result of a decade of experimentation, invention, and play with custom software, hardware, and technique.

Nicole Aptekar lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She recently completed a residency at NYU’s ITP. Her work has been exhibited in New York, California, and Vancouver.

Exhibition
"The stars cut open the sky"
2021, Oct - Lisbon.

Our memories like a tether pulling me through

Pushed past the curve, sloping down between the expanse. Our thoughts connect, curled and twisted joined across hundreds of miles. Our memories and dreams attached like a tether, pulling me through this trial. How sweet it is to see you in the shadows to hear you through the wind to feel you in the currents of air drifting. I can't comprehend what it takes to be there with you but I can't stop. The dark flashes, the sky screams and I'm alone holding our thoughts.

No quarrel between the ink and the sun

I ran for days. Broken and bleeding my world seemed like it was coming to a close. The dark void consuming the landscape and if I didn’t stop moving it would consume me right along with it. Another hill, another flight of ruined stairs, up and down, and yet, something was different. A splinter of hope cracks through the universe and pools into a cylinder a hundred feet tall. It shimmers and begs me near. There’s no quarrel between the ink and the sun, they pass through eachother with no awareness of the other’s presence. I might be restored.

In this shadow of solid light we go together

Running up the rise, twisting sinews leading me onward. I don't dare stop to look back, the glee and fear driving my momentum, pushing at my heels and propelling me forward. Bounding and full, the tower comes into view, solid and shining. Emanating out like rays, memories of blue skies and crisp white clouds. I walk into the casts of light and feel our time together, see you there. In this shadow of solid light, we go together.

Light as dense as stone

Free falling through the air, watching mountains push upwards, carving deep crevices. A cross forms across the horizon—splitting and subdividing, breaking halves into quadrants. Valleys pouring deeper and deeper, the ground rushing away as cliffs rocket by. A loud burst as the sky explodes, releasing light into the black, as dense as stone, rushing through the air like a waterfall into a lake.

A stutter becomes a melody

Your movements are no longer your own, each day an execu- tion of the prescribed process. A gear turns and another repetition readies itself into your chamber. The chute misfires and your sync is off. A small stutter becomes a complex melody and the spark of something entirely new glimmers across your eyelids. You can finally see the shine as it breaks through the fissure. Has this place always been filled with light? Or has your relentless pattern unlocked this moment, to finally soar.

A gasp weightless and drifting

A gasp. The air removed from the room, suddenly weightless and drifting up. The walls around me look polished, but in slight disrepair, like nobody's seen this place for quite a while. Indentations cracked and shattered against the shimmering black. A tremor echoes into a bell reverberating the glassy fragments against their hard won shelter. Still drifting as the light starts to drain from the edges of my vision, my breath sharper and shallower, I remind myself of the sky, of you. A gasp, like I've breached the water, out on the surface of the ocean drinking clear air, the crack of light shining directly on me and nowhere else, as I return to solid ground.

Echoes in the distance singing pleasant memories

An entry into something, somewhere that feels ancient. Brilliant and almost holy. As I gaze across the vastness of the space I see marks of what looks like a great battle, smoothed out by time. Echoes of the chaos in the distance ring through this scene, processed and transformed by its contours, singing pleasant memories. I sit for a while, and the sky almost seems to break, like it too can hear me cry.

As falling turns to flying

Running and slipping and falling, catching our breath and running again. Bounding deeper and deeper into the abyss, the world tumbling around us as the leaps become drifts, the air rushing past and whipping my skin. My world rotates and I realize I'm alone, falling down instead of forward, tunnels screaming by. A clock ticks forward and I'm back with you as falling turns to flying and we soar into the light.

Panic sliding seamlessly into curiosity

A siren is flying in my direction, I can't be sure if it's after me, but I'm running as fast as I possibly can, trying to find some- thing to hide behind. The ground is flattening all around me, great mountain ranges and cliffs collapsing into a single unbroken plane. The roar of the siren getting louder and darker. In the distance I see something fall from above. It crashes into the featureless expanse with a sound like glass but visually like water, and a ripple echoes outward from its impact, heading towards me. I skid to a stop as the perimeter of the ripple separates from the ground and snaps upwards into a massive sphere, as the siren arcs towards the ground, screaming and crackling, the loudest sound I've ever heard, colliding straight into the enormous undulating black glass sphere in front of me. They combine and harden, the smooth edges of the globe starting to become facets, the shimmers of glass turning matte. This only lasts a moment as a slice of light forms along the object, then another, my panic sliding seamlessly into curiosity as the entire formation vanishes, leaving a negative impression buried for miles in the ground. It almost appears to wash up like water on the beach, but when I look closer it has returned to solid obsidian.

Rotating sliding silently across itself

Exhausted from running, I pray that I'm not being followed as I collapse behind an outcropping. A bead of sweat falls from my hair and traces a jagged path along the smooth glass, drawing my attention to a small opening of what appears to be a tunnel through the ground. I hear the sirens ring through the air and bet that underground is safer than above, and head in. Nearly pitch black , I walk slowly forward. The ground feels like it's encouraging me, pushing me along as the walls start to wobble and pulse. I can't stop and soon the entire passage is rotating around me, back and forth, sliding silently across itself. I'm blinded as the space in front of me erupts into light, the chamber still pulsating and writhing, and then everything stops. The light snaps away and I'm back outside.

A lock of time unaffected here with the sight of you

We tangle as we run playfully along the ridge, you're so graceful I could burst, I'm full and lost in the sight of you. Nothing makes sense, I'm seeing the sun and the grass and the hills and the trees, lush and vibrant. Everything snaps and I'm in the endless black, mountains carving in and out, hearing an earth of mirrors shattering in the distance. You're back, we're back in the verdant, and then gone again. They're both happening. Like I've found a lock of time unaffected, and being here we can coexist.

The sky cracked shimmers piercing the night

Hundreds of feet in the air, repelled by the ground, the vast wrecks become clear—scars of something wretched carved deep into the earth. A new vantage as I soared, breathing slow. The sky cracked and sloughed, shimmers piercing the night, illuminating the rough hewn canyons, a pulse of aspiration sent into their depths.

All works are available in 3 editions, either 20” or 12” square.

Choose your favorite painting and make your reservation

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Nicole Aptekar

USA

Exhibition "The stars cut open the sky" 2021, Oct - Lisbon.

All works are available in 3 editions, either 20” or 12” square.

Choose your favorite painting and make your reservation

Final prices are on request and shipping and insurance costs may vary depending on the country / city of delivery of the artwork.

Exhibition
"The stars cut open the sky"
2021, Oct - Lisbon.