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Threads | The Acicular Series
Beginning in 2024, Nickel began a new series of drawings and paintings, work that referenced the black and white “Venture language” of his earlier painted wooden sculptures and plank pieces. But where he once used a mathematical sequence of edge-to-edge lines to guide his saw through wood, he now used those carefully plotted lines to create fields of sharp, pointed shapes (aciculae) full of movement, depth, and possible conflict. He called these drawings and larger paintings “The Acicular Series.” A group of these works — one large painting and seven small drawings — became part of a biennial group show at the European Cultural Centre in Venice in May 2026. The grouping at that show, below, included one large oil-on-canvas painting with seven related ink, pencil and gouache drawings on paper.  “Acicular” is a descriptive term meaning “pins and needles.” It is a geological term for a group of needle-shaped minerals that have distinct spiny protrusions which can pose contradictions: hard and soft, useful and harmful, elegant and ugly. Acicula is a late Latin term for “small needle.” The term and the series of work came together in August 2024, a difficult, confusing time. It was election year in the United States, which brought exhausting social and political disagreements to the fore and offered intimations that “the old ways” were giving way. It was also a time of personal disruption for the artist, with knee-replacement surgery and an extended period of recuperation. The downward spiral of political combat coinciding with months of surgery and recuperation fairly demanded attempts to come to terms with a new reality. The Acicular Series is not a description of those surgical/political realities, however. It is a reaction to the ongoing internal emotional turmoil they created and a protracted effort to maintain a measure of stability during the collapse of cultural institutions and idealism. The large (5 by 8 feet) oil painting and seven preparatory drawings in the Venice show were intended to address these internalized causes and effects. The structural working out of ground coloration, line, and white/black binary elements in the drawings also presented possibilities for future paintings. Each drawing involves dividing the four edges in geometric ratios, drawing lines between the points to create a “movable field of spikes and needles,” and controlling their directions and aggressive thrusts. The pins and needles begin and end along the edges of the drawing, bulging somewhat, interacting in a specific direction, and ending in a field of black or white dominance. The overall competition is defined by this interaction. The drawings become works in themselves as well as studies for larger paintings that explore the eternal struggle to find meaning in change and to understand the implicit purpose and force behind emerging ideas and values. | ||||||
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