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NIKI McQUEEN

I am enamoured with the extraordinary and create composites using mixed media, which express my fascination with the sciences, the social sciences and encompass psychology, whimsy, humour and the macabre. I draw inspiration from classic surrealism, magical realism, street art, collections of vintage medical and scientific illustrations, as well as many contemporary artists whose work I resonate with. I create digital composites using hand-drawn and public domain images, which are expertly and painstakingly hand-printed and drawn onto archival papers and then worked into with inks, watercolours, and mixed media.

 

My art explores the places beyond reason and the familiarity of everyday existence. It is a manifestation of an urgent, unquenchable need for the expression of years of unspoken truths, unthought thoughts, unfelt feelings, unfulfilled longings, losses, triumphs, lessons and personal evolution. I deconstruct feelings, thoughts and societal norms and examine them through the lens of my personal paradigm.

My love of Jungian theory, anatomy and biology has enabled me to discover and express powerful and emotive personal symbolism. I seek to provoke thoughts and feelings which deserve examination and connect with the viewers of my work in both a subliminal and emotional manner which transcends the banality of the labels we give ourselves and others. I do not always attach meaning to what I make, although meaning often blossoms from the resulting work that is both cathartic and enlightening. I strive for authenticity, trying to never contrive meaning or force interpretation on the viewer.

In my whimsical, more populist pieces (Life Beyond Reason works), I draw on my love of fairytales and magical realism to create worlds to inspire and delight.

“These collections summon the places where stories are born, where unfelt emotions dwell and unthought thoughts await. These are places beyond the mundane: inner and outer consciousness. They are explored through the production of impossible encounters and beautiful beings, charged with symbolism and borne of grief, joy, love, damage, disease and lessons. They exist to evoke reflection and curiosity, discomfort and relief.”

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