Nicole Winning

Photo credit: Tony Ionno

MFA 2020 Artists

Nicole Winning

UMass Dartmouth 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition

Biography

Nicole Winning has been a certified yoga and mindfulness meditation teacher since 2010. In 2016 she received her MA in Eastern Philosophy. She has taught mindfulness to the New Bedford Police, students in local elementary schools, and other at-risk and underserved communities. Having this background has inspired Winning to explore socially engaged and performance art in her MFA. She has exhibited in the 2019 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition, at museums and universities in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and internationally at CICA in Korea. She was invited to speak at the 2019 SECAC conference and at the 2019 Politics, Gender and Craft Symposium at Kentucky University. Winning is a recipient of the 2020 CAA Travel Grant.

Nicole Winning, Un Govern Able Spaces, digital photograph of performance, 20" x 30". Photo credit: Kate Couturier

Statement

In my research I have investigated the subjective relationship to the physical body and to those systems and ideologies that serve to enhance or erase this relationship. I began first with contemplating my personal relationship with my body and then expanded this research to others. My research explores these concepts through clay-based performance, sculpture, and photography. Clay has been the fundamental medium of expression in most of these works because I use it as a personal vehicle to reawaken the sensitive, intelligent and intuitive nature of my body. With the understanding of my body’s relationship to clay, I curate performative and visual opportunities for others to contemplate their own connections to their bodies, to the bodies of others, and to their differences and similarities.