Look at things as they could be otherwise.

-Maxine Greene

ABOUT

Andrea Nhuch is a multidisciplinary visual artist who focuses on sculpture and installation, transforming ordinary materials that normally perform utilitarian tasks (mostly used in packaging or construction) into abstract objects. Her practice is characterized by the use of texture and volume to create space, expanding the surface until it protrudes into new forms. Influenced by artists such as Alberto Burri and Piero Manzoni, Nhuch is attracted to Arte Povera’s notions of simplicity and “truth of the material”. While elevating everyday negligible materials, her work is centered on playfulness and speaks to concepts of reinvention, protection, safety, authenticity, perception, and simplicity. Her work is also related to femininity, to the aging body, referencing Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois. Her research and material experimentations derived from everyday observation on appearances – both physically and metaphorically. Via her practice, Nhuch inverts value systems that confer status based on preconceived notions of authenticity, higher function, and typical material relationships. In her experimentation with inflatable plastic (bubble wrap), for instance, she creates a contrast between the essence of objects and their outward appearances, their envelope. A material that is ubiquitous within the art world, normally used to protect valuable objects, has its function subverted, pointing outward with its glitzy exoskeletons, containing nothing but air. Nhuch manufactures her own inflatable plastic, adding a playful meaning to the modernist concept of “ready-made”. Apart from the bubble series, her other bodies of work include assemblages, reliefs, installations and commissions in public spaces, drawings and digital collages.