Jackie Nickerson

Important series by Nickerson include Farm (2002), Faith (2007), Terrain (2013), Field Test (2020) and Salvage (2021).

Farm (2002) presents Nickerson’s photographs of farm laborers in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, made between 1997 and 2000.Vince Aletti, “[https://www.vogue.it/en/article/this-is-not-a-fashion-photograph-jackie-nickerson This Is Not a Fashion Photograph]. Jackie Nickerson”, Vogue Italia, 14 December 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2025 Her subjects are dressed in clothes they made themselves; the series concerns personal identity through expression and improvisation.Amrita Pal Photos, [https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/jackie-nickerson-a-lens-into-the-real-world-amrita-pal-photos “Jackie Nickerson – a lens into the real world”], Metal magazine. Retrieved 3 January 2025 Farm was Nickerson’s first body of work and was published as a book by Jonathan Cape, London, in 2002.Erica Bellman, [https://archive.nytimes.com/tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/on-view-a-photographers-artful-images-of-african-agriculture/ “A Photographer’s Artful Images of African Agriculture”], T Magazine Blog, 17 January 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2024

Faith (2007) is Nickerson’s depiction of Irish Catholic monastic life in churches, convents and abbeys, combining portraits with the documentation of daily rituals and communal devotion.[https://actuphoto.com/jackienickerson Artist’s page at Actuphoto]. Retrieved 12 December 2024 She photographed nuns and priests in their communities, as well as architectural details including corridors, libraries, kitchens and dining rooms. Nickerson emphasizes the austere vocational life of her sitters, not the mysteries of faith itself; she has stated: “These are individuals and communities which are steeped in an interiority, which they have discovered is not their own but something wider and deeper than themselves, of which they are a part.”[https://actuphoto.com/8369-jackie-nickerson-faith.html “Jackie Nickerson, Faith”], Actuphoto, 3 August 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2024 Faith was published in book form by SteidlMack, Göttingen, in 2007, in conjunction with an exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.[https://mackbooks.co.uk/products/faith-br-jackie-nickerson?srsltid=AfmBOorfaLm5ZAN1OwqJnM8He_7f2RtoBo05wstyMSUjuAxPpAPc4gVn “Faith / Jackie Nickerson”], Mack Books, London. Retrieved 7 January 2025

Terrain (2013) comprises portraits Nickerson made of agricultural workers in Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa,[https://ulrich.wichita.edu/acquisitions-jackie-nickerson/ “Acquisitions: Jackie Nickerson”] at Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita. Retrieved 6 January 2025 in which the materials of their labour – including harvested bananas, packing crates, and sheaths of burlap and leaves – conceal the workers’ faces.Kathleen Madden, [https://visualartists.ie/van-critique-marchapril-2014-jackie-nickerson-at-jack-shainman-gallery-new-york/ “VAN Critique March/April 2014: Jackie Nickerson at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York”], Visual Artists Ireland, Dublin. Retrieved 26 November 2024 Nickerson has described her subjects as “camouflaged by their produce, creating a hybrid figure”. Some images in the series were photographed through a veil of farming plastic which has been interpreted as a metaphor for separation from the natural world.[https://www.lightwork.org/archive/jackie-nickerson-terrain/ “Jackie Nickerson: Terrain”], Light Work, Syracuse. Retrieved 22 January 2025 By depicting workers with the tools and products of their exertion, Terrain concerns themes beyond strict portraiture including global political issues of labour, the environment, food scarcity, sustainability and human rights,Myles Little, [https://time.com/3803594/hiding-africa-jackie-nickersons-portraits-of-laborers/ “Hiding Africa: Jackie Nickerson’s Portraits of Laborers”], Time magazine, 28 October 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2025 as well as the psychic and material traces of work on people and nature:[https://www.lensculture.com/jackie-nickerson Artist’s page at LensCulture, Amsterdam]. Retrieved 7 December 2024 “The photographs still ripple with politics, particularly around the issues of food production, agribusiness and labor. It’s just that they are marked with a next-generation awareness of the pitfalls of photographing people.”Martha Schwendener, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/arts/design/jackie-nickerson-terrain.html “Jackie Nickerson: ‘Terrain’”], The New York Times, 23 January 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2024 TF Editores, Madrid, published the book Terrain in 2013.

Nickerson’s Field Test (2020) shows (mostly in a studio environment) human figures, largely heads, which have been obscured by a variety of manmade materials – including perforated packaging, mesh fabric and bubble wrap,Kristen Tauer, [https://wwd.com/feature/jackie-nickerson-field-test-photography-exhibit-art-jack-shainman-gallery-1234763183/ “Jackie Nickerson’s ‘Field Test’ Offers a New Way to See PPE and Plastic”], Women’s Wear Daily, 4 March 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2025 and in particular “ag plastics” (“Plasticulture”, agriculture plastics used in farming operations) such as soil fumigation film, irrigation drip tape and packaging cord.Nicholas Burman, [https://unrecorded.co/blogs/news/jackie-nickerson?srsltid=AfmBOor-vFlUxoHR7JoWc6wGb9MEUMvaFglDsR3pAhGk7qBHOSbzQZkg “Jackie Nicker’s ‘Field Test’”], Unrecorded, Amsterdam. Retrieved 26 January 2025 Nickerson began work on Field Test in 2014 after Time magazine commissioned her to document the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, where she witnessed the protective role of plastics alongside their waste; the photos were completed before the Covid-19 pandemic.Michelle Sinclair Colman, [https://galeriemagazine.com/jackie-nickerson-photographer/ “Why Photographer Jackie Nickerson Is Having a Moment”], Galerie magazine, 1 December 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2024 Central to the series are a sense of shared trauma, the effects of consumerism on the psyche, and how materials made by humans allow them to control their natural surroundings.Julie Le Minor, [https://www.exhibition-magazine.com/about “Through the Lens of Jackie Nickerson”], Exhibition magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2025 Nickerson has described the series as addressing “new kinds of stress and communication, the environment, speciesism, the waste, the pressure, the mandatory compliance, the lack of privacy. […] It has a universal identity, like a collective smothering”. Kerber, Berlin, published Field Test in 2020.[https://www.kerberverlag.com/en/1860/jackie-nickerson Jackie Nickerson, Field Test], Kerber Verlag, Berlin. Retrieved 26 January 2025

Salvage (2021) is a series of studio portraits in which Nickerson obstructs her sitters’ faces with “salvaged” objects including toys, flowers and food packaging. Employing such reused and recycled objects questions the relationship between consumers and commodities, and suggests an individual’s sense of self is not enhanced but obscured by material possessions.April-Rose Desalegn, [https://museemagazine.com/culture/2022/2/14/book-review-salvage-by-jackie-nickerson “Book Review: Salvage by Jackie Nickerson”], Musée magazine, 14 February 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2025. Through an emphasis on balance, proportion and stillness, the portraits reference Old Master paintings, including the work of Hans Memling, Hans Holbein, Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer, and challenge how portraiture historically concerned the representation of the elite and their wealth.Ted Stansfield, “The Story Behind Jackie Nickerson’s Arresting ‘Salvage’ Portraits”, AnOther magazine, 14 October, 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2025

https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/13652/the-story-behind-jackie-nickerson-s-salvage-portraits Salvage was published by Kerber, Berlin, in 2021.[https://www.kerberverlag.com/en/1908/jackie-nickerson Jackie Nickerson, Salvage], Kerber Verlag, Berlin. Retrieved 10 March 2025

• 2008: Faith, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris[https://www.centreculturelirlandais.com/en/whats-on/exhibitions-events/jackie-nickerson Jackie Nickerson, Faith], Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, November 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2025
• 2009: Farm, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris[https://photography-now.com/exhibition/67123 Jackie Nickerson, Farm], Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris, 14 November to 5 December 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2025
• 2009–10: Ten Miles Round, Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin[https://singularity.ie/contemporary-photography/ten-miles-round-by-jackie-nickerson “Ten Miles Round by Jackie Nickerson”], Singularity, 25 November 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2025
• 2010: Gulf, Maison de la Photographie, Lille[https://maisonphoto.com/2010/11/jackie-nickerson-gulf/ “Jackie Nickerson: Gulf”], Maison de la Photographie, Lille, 16 to 30 November 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2025
• 2013: Faith, Accademia d’Arte, Bologna[https://www.artnet.com/artists/jackie-nickerson/biography Artist’s page at Artnet]. Retrieved 31 March 2025
• 2013–14: Terrain, Brancolini Grimaldi, London[https://www.meer.com/en/5732-jackie-nickerson-terrain “Jackie Nickerson, Terrain”], 22 November 2013  to 25 January 2014, Meer. Retrieved 2 April 2005
• 2015–16: Uniform, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin[https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/uniform-collaboration-jackie-nickerson “Uniform: A collaboration with Jackie Nickerson”], National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 10 October 2015 to 10 January 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2025
• 2016–17: August, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati[https://freedomcenter.org/voice/press_release/national-underground-railroad-freedom-center-hosting-three-fotofocus-biennial-2016-exhibitions/ “National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Hosting Three FotoFocus Biennial 2016 Exhibitions”], National Underground Railroad Freedom Center press release, 22 September 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2025
• 2021: Field Test, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York[https://jackshainman.com/exhibitions/jackie_nickerson_field_test “Jackie Nickerson, Field Test”], Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, 25 February to 3 April 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2025

• 2008: AIB Art Prize, Dublin[https://aib.ie/content/dam/aib/group/Docs/Press%20Releases/2008/19-05-2008-aib-announces-winner-of-the-aib-prize-for-2008.pdf “AIB announces winner of The AIB Prize for 2008”], AIB press release, 19 May 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2025
• 2009: Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts Prize, Dublin[http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-art-organizations/royal-hibernian-academy.htm “2009 RHA Prize Winners”], Visual Arts Cork. Retrieved 27 March 2025
• 2010, 2011, 2013: Visual Artist Award, Culture Ireland, Dublin[https://jackshainman.com/uploads/13100131/1687809760754/JSG_JN_CV_2023.pdf Artist’s page at Jack Shainman Gallery], New York. Retrieved 3 April 2025
• 2013: Light Work Visiting Artist Grant, Syracuse University, New York[https://news.syr.edu/blog/2013/10/08/terrain-features-work-of-jackie-nickerson-43920/ “Terrain Features Work of Jackie Nickerson”], Syracuse University News, 8 October 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2025

• Farm, London: Jonathan Cape, 2002. ISBN 978-0-2240-6268-8
• Faith, Göttingen: SteidlMack, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8652-1484-3
• Terrain, Madrid: TF Editores, 2013. ISBN 978-8-4152-5394-5
• Field Test, Berlin: Kerber, 2020. ISBN 978-3-7356-0734-8
• Salvage, Berlin: Kerber, 2021. ISBN 978-3-7356-0755-3
• Fashion Eye Iceland, Paris: Louis Vuitton, 2024.ISBN 978-2-3698-3461-8

• Cleveland Clinic Art Collection, Ohio[https://www.artnet.de/künstler/jackie-nickerson/biografie Artist’s page at Artnet]. Retrieved 7 April 2025
• Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin[https://imma.ie/collection/green-room/ “Jackie Nickerson, Green Room, 2005”], Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Retrieved 23 April 2025
• Museum of Modern Art, New York[https://www.butlergallery.ie/whats-on/gulf-jackie-nickerson “Jackie Nickerson, Gulf”], Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. Retrieved 27 March 2025
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jackie-nickerson-wrapped “Jackie Nickerson, Wrapped, 2019”], Artsy. Retrieved 22 March 2025
• National Gallery of Ireland, DublinA[https://createlouth.ie/artist/jackie-nickerson/ rtist’s page at The Arts Office], Louth County, Dundalk. Retrieved 17 March 2025
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara[https://ocula.com/artists/jackie-nickerson/ Artist’s page at Ocula]. Retrieved 5 April 2025
• Vatican Museums, Vatican City[https://talks.pratt.edu/media/t/1_48jfhphh Jackie Nickerson], Pratt Photography Lectures, 18 February 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2025

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Category:American photographers

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Category:1960 births

Category:Living people

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