2024
72″x48″
Oil on canvas

Nicholas Koby is a painter living and working on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Lekwungen and W̱sáneć nations.

My practice explores the resonance of emotions through the articulation of painting that challenges the veil of perception and questions how we process our existence’s complexities. My hand becomes the conduit for the veil that becomes visible in my composition. The veil is the movement of the brush in dialogue with my hand. The conversation with the barrier is the catalyst and opening of the portal, allowing the medium of paint to portray my formative years of trauma. I am actively working with themes of abscess and displacement of grief, self-destruction, effervescent glimpses of sublime, love & absence and spirited states of euphoria. Grief is often a reflection of the past, a reflection that projects itself onto the perception of the future. My work is harnessing this projection and placing it in the present. By doing this, my perceptions of the future change, putting me on a path leading toward a utopic feeling. Upon reaching this perfect environment, the paradox breaks, transforming my perception of this location into a dystopia, a site of rubble waiting to be rebuilt.

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