Nicole Chesney
Nicole Chesney was born in Cinnaminson, New Jersey in 1971. She began her undergraduate studies at California College of Arts and Crafts and completed her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art in 1997. In 2000, Nicole earned her Master’s degree from The Canberra School of Art in Canberra, Australia.
Awards received include a Jutta Cuny-Franz Foundation Supporting Award in Düsseldorf, Germany, the UrbanGlass Award for New Talent, and The Corning Museum of Glass Rakow Commission. She has also created large-scale, site-specific commissions including those at 7 World Trade Center, New York and Massachusetts College of Art, Boston.
Her work is exhibited and collected internationally including the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Chesney is inspired by the writings of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard who once described himself, "not as a philosopher so much as a thinker who grants himself the right to dream." While Bachelard explores many types of dreams, he says, "the space in which we shall spend our nocturnal hours has no perspective, no distance. ...And the skies we soar through are wholly interior - skies of desire or hope..." Later, the reader is invited to "measure the distance between that which is seen and that which is dreamt."
Chesney's oil paintings on etched, mirrored glass explore the sources of "sky water" - the fog that hangs in the air and the clouds that drift through the sky. The literal moisture and humidity that gives water to the air also obscures the "mirror" of the sky. These elements, air and water, often join to create an infinite, seamless "unsilvered mirror" where the horizon ceases and the beyond continues.
Candeo, 2023, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 60x60x1.5"> Inquire Cayo 2, 2023, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 70x60x2"> Inquire Modo, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 30x20x1"> Inquire Verum, 2022, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x36x1 Sold> Inquire Venusta, 2022, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x36x1" Sold> Inquire Vivet 2, 2022, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 42x66x1" Sold> Inquire Verditer Green, 2020-2022, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x52x1" Sold> Inquire Mirus, 2021, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 48x48x1.5" Sold> Inquire Calma, 2021, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 60x60x1.5" Sold> Inquire Verditer, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x36x1" Sold> Inquire Pelagus, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x56x1" Sold> Inquire Specular, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 68x64x1"> Inquire Glint, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 60x54x1.5" Sold> Inquire Rime, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 60x60x1.5" Sold> Inquire Vivet, 2020, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 20x20x1" Sold> Inquire Violet Nocturne 2, 2019, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 60x60x1.5" Sold> Inquire Umbra, 2019, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 45x63.5x1" Sold> Inquire Study for Glint, 2019, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 24x24x1"> Inquire Gleam, 2018, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 30x36x1" > Inquire Study for Lucet, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 20x24x1" Sold> Inquire Aphros, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x48x1" Sold> Inquire Bice, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 20x24x1" Sold> Inquire Incanto, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 45x63.5x1" Sold> Inquire Carmen, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 48x48x1" Sold> Inquire Numin, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 30x63.5x1" Sold> Inquire Voto 3, 2017, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 32x32x1" Sold> Inquire Aver 3, 2016, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 60x60x2" Sold> Inquire Votum, 2014, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 45x63.5x1" Sold> Inquire Study for Aliquo, 2014, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 14x20x1" Sold> Inquire Somnio, 2014, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 36x82x1" Sold> Inquire Altum, 2014, oil on acid-etched and mirrored glass, 45x60x1" Sold> Inquire
Nicole Chesney
Nicole Chesney was born in Cinnaminson, New Jersey in 1971. She began her undergraduate studies at California College of Arts and Crafts and completed her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art in 1997. In 2000, Nicole earned her Master’s degree from The Canberra School of Art in Canberra, Australia.
Awards received include a Jutta Cuny-Franz Foundation Supporting Award in Düsseldorf, Germany, the UrbanGlass Award for New Talent, and The Corning Museum of Glass Rakow Commission. She has also created large-scale, site-specific commissions including those at 7 World Trade Center, New York and Massachusetts College of Art, Boston.
Her work is exhibited and collected internationally including the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Chesney is inspired by the writings of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard who once described himself, "not as a philosopher so much as a thinker who grants himself the right to dream." While Bachelard explores many types of dreams, he says, "the space in which we shall spend our nocturnal hours has no perspective, no distance. ...And the skies we soar through are wholly interior - skies of desire or hope..." Later, the reader is invited to "measure the distance between that which is seen and that which is dreamt."
Chesney's oil paintings on etched, mirrored glass explore the sources of "sky water" - the fog that hangs in the air and the clouds that drift through the sky. The literal moisture and humidity that gives water to the air also obscures the "mirror" of the sky. These elements, air and water, often join to create an infinite, seamless "unsilvered mirror" where the horizon ceases and the beyond continues.