Nina Fraser
Lisbon
Multidisciplinary Artist based in Lisbon, working with collage, painting and sculpture to reflect upon place, memory, and the fragility of constructed reality.
MessageNina Fraser (1984) b. St. Albans, UK, graduated in Textile Art from Winchester College of Arts (UK) in 2006, and completed a Masters level course in Commissioning & Curating Contemporary Public Art from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2023. Nina’s practice is multidisciplinary, exploring human interaction and relationship to the environment, landscape and place through the utilisation of the found image. Her intention is to reflect upon a sense of place that shapes memory traces into physical form, exposing the fragility of our constructed reality. Residencies include; "Plant thinking", Estação Viva, Canelas, Portugal (2023); "Mycelium", Roccamonfina, Italy, (2023); "BODY & PLACE", Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire, UK, (2019); and MArt experimental learning program, Lisbon, Portugal (2015 - 17). Individual exhibitions include: "A Study of Psycho-cybernetics", Marvila Art District, Lisbon, Portugal (2023); Home", Espaço Cultural Mercês, Lisbon, Portugal (2021); "TAXIS DERMA", Museum of Natural Science and History, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); and "Sublime", Mute Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal (2019). Nina’s collages have been published in magazines and books worldwide. Nina’s work is represented in the public and private collections including: The Doug and Laurie Kanyer Art Collection, Yakima, WA, USA; Coleção Grupo IMPRESSA, Lisbon, Portugal; Casa das Artes de Tavira, Portugal; Coleção Figueiredo Ribeiro, Abrantes, Portugal; Retroavangarda Gallery Collection, Warsaw, Poland amongst others.
She co-creates projects and practical structures to improve our social and human experience, often working collaboratively within communities or non profit associations. She currently works as artistic coordinator of Art & Craft Refúgio - a project situated within Largo Residências, integrating migrants and refugees through regular meetings. She is also founder of Collage Working Club, a weekly group that host workshops and open sessions surrounding methods of collage and collage thinking.
Statement
I create artworks that reflect upon a sense of place to shape memory traces into physical form. Investigating ways of being, I explore ideas of transformation, connection and belonging through modes of thought, human and non-human systems and structures. My work is often transient, evading or in dialogue with its physical supports, utilising the tension between parameters to question how notions of identity and place can be explored. Working with a multidisciplinary approach that roots itself within the materiality of paper, I harness ephemera from my location to produce collages, paintings, and sculptures, intercepting other disciplines such as performance and poetry to activate meaning and generate connections. I am interested in collage as an act of arrangement. My artistic practice involves the development and instigation of spaces that encourage creative interactions, experimentation and exploration. Often working site-specifically and/or collaboratively, notions of authorship are blurred and the found image might be appropriated, contaminated, altered or destroyed.