Mae Nicolaou

infomation

Mae Nicolaou (b. 1997, Dublin, Ireland) is a visual artist based in London, UK. Her work, which oscillates between the figurative and the supposedly functional, finds its centre in the margins. Mae is interested in the representation of ordinary people engaging in the quotidian, exploring the often overlooked accompaniments of everyday life and the ways in which they serve as markers of our need for comfort and affirmation.

Choosing experience over reference as a methodology, she begins with a collection and selection of materials. She often layers varying mediums, representing both slow processes such as traditional casting methods with more fast-paced processes such as analogue forms of image making like frottage drawing. Moreover, these drawings she employs should not be considered a divergence; rather, they are part of a heterogeneous yet continuous part of her practice.

Both processes always remain tied to the limitations and materiality of the human body. Her works can be read as embodied forms rather than visual representations, due to both the physical activity required to make them and the indexical traces of human culture they possess.  With a reliance on lived experience, the very make-up of these traces turns on marking difference. These deliberate processes, developed specifically for her practice, enable her to activate her thoughts and ideas.