Artists

Nicole Havekost

b. 1970

Nicole Havekost. Tether, 2023. Industrial felt, cotton thread, sewing hardware, paper, galvanized steel, PVC pipe, concrete, wood. 123 x 180 x 60 in.

Nicole Havekost. Rondure, 2024. Graphite, soft pastel on rag paper. 22 x 15 in.

Nicole Havekost. Trickle, 2024. Soft pastel, graphite, graphite putty on rag paper. 17½ x 22¼ in.

Amble, 2023
Industrial felt, cotton thread, sewing hardware, acid free paper, acid free tape, wire
9 x 14 x 9 in.

Sustain, 2023
Wool felt, thread, paper, electrical conduit pipe, plywood, hooks and eye
75 x 21 x 25 in.

Reach, 2021
Wool felt, thread, paper, hooks and eye
12. x 14. x 8 in.

Entwine, 2023
Industrial felt, cotton thread, sewing hardware, acid free paper, acid free tape, wire
13. x 20 x 7 in.

Mane, 2023
Industrial felt, cotton thread, fiberfill, dry paint pigment, sewing hardware, silk, wood, upholstery nails
32 x 14 x 7. in.

Sheath (8), 2022
Wool felt, beeswax, soft & oil pastel, volcanic salt, shellac, latex, cotton thread
8 x 18 x 3 in.
14. x 23⅝ x 4 in. (framed)

Sheath (5), 2022
Wool felt, beeswax, soft & oil pastel, shellac, latex, cotton thread
9. x 9. x 1 in.
14 x 14. x 3 in. (framed)

Scroll

Nicole Havekost. Tether, 2023. Industrial felt, cotton thread, sewing hardware, paper, galvanized steel, PVC pipe, concrete, wood. 123 x 180 x 60 in.

Nicole Havekost. Rondure, 2024. Graphite, soft pastel on rag paper. 22 x 15 in.

Nicole Havekost. Trickle, 2024. Soft pastel, graphite, graphite putty on rag paper. 17½ x 22¼ in.

Amble, 2023
Industrial felt, cotton thread, sewing hardware, acid free paper, acid free tape, wire
9 x 14 x 9 in.

Sustain, 2023
Wool felt, thread, paper, electrical conduit pipe, plywood, hooks and eye
75 x 21 x 25 in.

Reach, 2021
Wool felt, thread, paper, hooks and eye
12. x 14. x 8 in.

Entwine, 2023
Industrial felt, cotton thread, sewing hardware, acid free paper, acid free tape, wire
13. x 20 x 7 in.

Mane, 2023
Industrial felt, cotton thread, fiberfill, dry paint pigment, sewing hardware, silk, wood, upholstery nails
32 x 14 x 7. in.

Sheath (8), 2022
Wool felt, beeswax, soft & oil pastel, volcanic salt, shellac, latex, cotton thread
8 x 18 x 3 in.
14. x 23⅝ x 4 in. (framed)

Sheath (5), 2022
Wool felt, beeswax, soft & oil pastel, shellac, latex, cotton thread
9. x 9. x 1 in.
14 x 14. x 3 in. (framed)

Based in Rochester, Minnesota, Nicole Havekost’s practice centers on the female body, which she reimagines as a sovereign organism that is simultaneously exquisite and abject. Havekost’s ongoing series of monumental soft sculptures are painstakingly sewn with gestural lines of red thread over steel armatures and adorned with thousands of hooks and eyes. Akin to drawing in space, stitching is a labor-intensive practice of mark making. For Nicole, “Piercing, pulling, and closing each stitch is aggressive and restorative. Stitching is an act of accumulation; it is a collection of marks, moments, and attachments that give shape to a form.” The artist’s sculptures are a potent reminder that despite our desire to tame and groom our bodies, corporeality is inescapable. Ripe with raw physicality, her headless figures draw from modernist sculptural traditions – including the familial groupings of Henry Moore and the anguished femininity of Louise Bourgeois.

Havekost earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the University of New Mexico. She has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, including recent solo presentations at St. Catherine’s University (2024), the South Bend Museum of Art (2023), the University of Minnesota (2021), The Minneapolis Institute of Art (2020), and The Morris Graves Museum of Art (2019). Havekost is a member of A.I.R. Gallery in New York and the recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board grants in 2020, 2018, and 2013.

Exhibitions

A Glitter of Seas

Group Exhibition

Penumbra

Solo Exhibition

Publications

Press

Nicole Havekost by Gabrielle Gopinath

  Sculpture Magazine 11/18/2024

Gravity Happens to Us by Sheila Regan

  Mn Artists 2/4/2021

Femme giants and more rise at the Rochester Art Center by Alex V. Cipolle

  MPR News 1/11/2023

Everything is a Process: Nicole Havekost Talks With Keren Kroul by Lydia Moran

  Minnesota Women's Press 12/26/2023

Walkthrough

Penumbra

10/19, 1PM

Opening Reception

Nicole Havekost: Penumbra

9/13, 6–8PM