Nicole Young / Two Can Play That Game

Nicole Young is an artist based on the traditional, unceded and occupied territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, BC.).  Born in Ontario, Nicole attended the University of British Columbia Okanagan where she received a BFA in Visual Arts and Art History, and studied studio arts and art history at the University of California Los Angeles. Working in the confluence of visual arts, environmentalism and storytelling, Nicole’s works are as much science experiments as they are conversations on ways to approach climate justice.

Moving seamlessly between large scale textile installations, works on canvas, garments, and graceful drawings, Nicole’s works aesthetically resemble collage while maintaining their painterly qualities. She creates her own pigments and dyes out of natural and often wild foraged materials including plant matter and minerals as a way to deepen her connection with the land, and to create a dialogue about waste-free practices. 

Nicole’s current body of work unfolds as a diaristic exploration of time, memory, and material. Built upon painted fragments from canvases created between 2016 and 2020, the series reflects on how distance transforms narrative and reshapes the reliability of recollection. Each piece lingers in the tension between what is remembered and what is reimagined.