Nicola Garvey graduated from Leeds Arts University with a BA (first-class) honours degree in Fine Art, during the summer of 2021. She continues to live and work in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Her sculptural practice explores and promotes beauty in the unlikely, and is influenced by the dichotomy between comfort and restriction; childhood memories; the everyday; and exposing misappropriation of power.
‘Untitled 2022’ is her latest piece since graduating and stands at 227cm, it is comprised of a vintage red and white dolls house sitting on four splayed, heavy, hollow, steel legs with feet. It is deliberately high beyond reach, and a metaphor for so many interpretations. Garvey is mindful not to impose her own explanations, preferring instead that the viewer is involved in forming their own understandings.
‘Untitled 2022’ is engaging not only because of its imposing presence but because it is sincere without being overcomplicated; it is genuine; gritty; and relatable; it is humble yet powerful, and is an expansion of previous works made throughout her studies during the covid pandemic and subsequent lock-downs, where her sculptures emerged as anthropomorphic ‘beings’ suggestive of a distorted reality.
Her material interests incorporate found or acquired objects that have a previous history and speak of a previous life, whilst also taking into account economic and environmental concerns, and using a local fabricator.
Her work is Influenced by that of artists Louise Bourgeois; Mona Hatoum; Laure Prouvost; and Phyllida Barlow; for their expression, choice of materials and scale of structure, she is also lured by the ‘unreal’ found in 1970’s children’s TV programs and Edward Lear’s poetry of fantastical ballads, for its magical quality and offer of escapism.
“I want my work to be seen; accessible; walked around; discussed; to resonate; and to stimulate thoughtfulness, questioning and contemplation.”