Nichole Gronvold Roller
- Michael Hanna
- May 1
- 2 min read
Nichole Gronvold Roller is a pattern sculptor and mixed media painter who has exhibited extensively across the United States. Recent solo exhibitions include Rockport Center for the Arts in Texas, Thelma Sadoff Center For the Arts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Heuser Art Center at Bradley University as well as Peoria Art Guild in Illinois, and BoxHeart Gallery in Pittsburgh. She is currently represented by Banzs Studio in Cincinnati, James May Gallery in Milwaukee, and BoxHeart Gallery. Notable publications include Refrigerator Poetry Visual Art Exhibition Catalogue, Up Down and Through Paintings published by Dubuque Museum of Art, Artforum, Wall Street International, and Peoria Journal Star.
The various sculptures and angular mixed media works of Nichole Roller appear similar to patterns one would find on vintage wallpaper from a Victorian home. In essence, she creates an integration between the depictions of textiles, interior design, and enhances spatial intervals with shaped canvases which appear more like sculptural fiber installations rather than actual paintings. In fact, a viewer of her work may be forgiven to mistake Nichole for a fiber installation artist rather than an actual mixed media painter and sculptor.
While Nichole’s Architectural Edges series seems highly geometric and angular, her ceramic sculptures known as Stackables remain some of her most fascinating works in their unusual organic shapes which seem almost extraterrestrial in appearance and design through various twists and turns of curvature. Her works represent the disfiguration and deconstruction of notions of interiors and design. Nichole’s works represent our relationship not just with artistic principles such as design and geometry but also our connection with the home and how such a concept has an impact on our psyche. By creating angular geometry of home-like designs reminiscent of Victorian tapestry, furniture, and wallpaper she recreates unfamiliar decorative qualities which seem like a contemporary version of the ornamental French Rococo period from the 17th century.
Softening the Edge (pictured above) remains an imposing sculpture representing a dominating force of harsh geometry void of extensive angularity as seen in her other sets of series which expresses intricate patterns of neutral floral designs. Similar to an installation, the piece almost looks invasive of a space and appears peculiarly out of place of contemporary design despite containing a post-modern shape. The neutral tones are complimented by the pastels of pink and pale blue which represent the sky and earth.
Nichole Gronvold Roller creates excellent compositions which enhance any space they are placed in. These fascinating studies on the relationship of fiber materials and interior design on contemporary sensibilities through vintage patterns reveals an artist desiring to bridge the viewer to the past and present. Through irregular shapes throughout her entire body of work, she creates three-dimensional masterpieces which through angularity or crossing configurations express notions of interactions with interior spaces reflecting an array of emotional appeal, depending on the piece.
