Nikki Thompson
Sacramento, CA
Nikki Thompson is a book artist (Deconstructed Artichoke Press). Her art focuses on social justice, feminism, and family through bookmaking and printmaking.
MessageNikki Thompson is a book artist (aka Deconstructed Artichoke Press). She fled Southern California for UC Berkeley, where she earned a degree in architecture and remained in the Bay Area to earn her MFA at the California College of the Arts. Her art explores architecture, feminism, and the politics of work through the mixed media of bookmaking, printmaking, and collage. Her work has been awarded First Prize at Gallerie Renee Marie and a Purchase Prize at 23 Sandy Gallery. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the College Book Arts Association Project Assistance Grant and Rising Together Social Justice Zine Micro-Grant. Her work can be seen at deconstructedartichokepress.com, on Facebook at DeconstructedArtichokePress, and Instagram @d_artichoke.
Statement
Both my working process and my artist’s books consist of layers and layers, like the leaves of an artichoke with a heart at the center. While my art is mainly autobiographical, it touches an essence every person experiences — the end of a relationship, illness, family. With much of my work, I have an overlay of social justice.
The artist’s book format, which is primarily what I work in, is rich in multi-dimensionality; I can draw, letterpress, silk-screen, collage, sew, write, and more. The materiality — the sensuality of texture, color, weight, transparency — is important in my artist’s books. Then the visual language of drawing, photography, collage, typography plays an essential role as well. And finally, the four-dimensional progression of pages, structure, and engineering gives my books that “wow” feeling, according to people who see them. Additionally, the details are as important as the whole.
My working process tends to be fragmented. I will work on one book that is very involved at the same time that I’m working on a chapbook and a zine. My artist’s books, which range from an edition size of 20 to 50, take years from conception to letterpress printing to binding to making cases.
My intention with the materiality, visual language, and structure is to create artist’s book that can be thought about even after the book has been put down.
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