Nina Tichava

"My process-based paintings are as unplanned as possible. I search to convey a feeling of immediacy and to enhance the very physical and tactile elements of my artwork. The presence and feeling of my hand is essential to the work and ultimately my focus."

Nina Tichava was raised in both rural northern New Mexico and the Bay Area in California. She was influenced by her father, a construction worker, and mathematician, and her mother, an artist and designer. The reflections of these dualities—country to city, pragmatist to artist, nature to technology—are essential to and evident in her paintings.

Tichava relies on the processes of layering and intricate patterning. While her work is seemingly geometric, dominated by leitmotifs of circles across parallel and intersecting lines, upon closer inspection, each painting is rendered organic and delicate by the underlying texture. Her unique system of collaged dots punctuate the work with a three-dimensional quality, drawing the viewer even closer to appreciate every moment.

Tichava was a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award Grant in 2007 and has exhibited professionally since 2009. She received her BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco/Oakland.

Submitted by Laura Rathe Fine Art