Nicole Killian

Killian was born on September 16, 1982, in Buffalo, New York, and was raised in a Sicilian-American Catholic family. They earned their M.F.A from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2011 and their B.F.A from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2004.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}} Their undergraduate studies were completed in Dessau Germany at the Bauhaus.{{Cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/118179803/|title=Designers Talking with Nicole Killian}}{{Better source needed|reason=Subject talking about herself|date=January 2018}} Their background is in graphic design and is known for digital GIFs, publishing, and writing that deals with queerness, girlhood and popular culture. Killian lives in Richmond, Virginia where they teach at Virginia Commonwealth University.{{Cite news|url=https://arts.vcu.edu/graphicdesign/faculty/nicole-killian/|title=Nicole Killian - VCUarts Department of Graphic Design|work=VCUarts Department of Graphic Design|access-date=2018-01-02|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928173111/https://arts.vcu.edu/graphicdesign/faculty/nicole-killian/|url-status=dead}} Previously, they taught at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Killian's first solo show JELLY was at Sadie Halie Projects in Brooklyn New York in 2013.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sadiehalieprojects.com/jelly|title=Sadie Halie Projects - Nicole Killian: Jelly|website=Sadie Halie Projects|language=en|access-date=2018-01-02}}

In 2014, Killian also showed at Present Works in Milwaukee Wisconsin, in an exhibition called Mood Ring, which happened in tandem with a day-long residency for Designers Talking{{Cite web|url=http://designers-talking.tumblr.com/tagged/nicolekillian/|title=Designers talking|website=designers-talking.tumblr.com|access-date=2018-04-13}} that was exhibited at Comb Gallery and ended with an artist talk.{{Citation|last=Talking|first=Designers|title=Designers Talking with Nicole Killian|date=2015-01-29|url=https://vimeo.com/118179803|accessdate=2018-04-13}}

Killian held a residency at Arteles in Haukijärvi Finland during the Neo-Future gathering in 2016.{{Cite web|url=http://www.arteles.org/artists_projects.html|title=Arteles|website=Arteles|access-date=2018-01-02}} In 2016, they had a solo show at Richmond's SEDIMENT titled My Friend's Cat is Cute.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sedimentarts.org/exhbitions/#/my-friends-cat-is-cute|title=Gallery Exhibitions|website=SEDIMENT|language=en-US|access-date=2018-01-02}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.commonwealthtimes.org/2016/11/21/nicole-killian/|title=Nicole Killian: teacher-designer-artist {{!}} The Commonwealth Times|website=www.commonwealthtimes.org|language=en-US|access-date=2018-01-02}}

Killian ran a four year long collaborative studio practice in Brooklyn, New York called Hot Sundae{{Cite web|url=http://www.a-ok.nyc/hot-sundae-2/|title=Hot Sundae 2|website=www.a-ok.nyc|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-13}} focused on queer ideals of breaking rules and having fun.

Killian collaborated with artist Charlie White in 2012 on his Music For Sleeping Children project.{{Cite news|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/1681856/charlie-white-5-directors-make-art-from-the-lives-of-teen-girls|title=Charlie White, 5 Directors Make Art From The Lives Of Teen Girls|date=2012-10-31|work=Fast Company|access-date=2018-01-02|language=en-US}}{{Failed verification|date=January 2018|reason=source does not mention the subject}} Killian created a back door net space that has remained an ongoing archive for them.{{Cite web|url=http://music-for-sleeping-children.tumblr.com/|title=♡MUSICFORSLEEPINGCHILDREN♡|website=music-for-sleeping-children.tumblr.com|access-date=2018-01-02}}

In 2014, Lorna Mills curated a video series, entitled Ways of Something, based on art historian John Berger's 1971 documentary Ways of Seeing. For this, thirty different web-based artists were invited per episode to create a single minute of footage about their contemporary practice. Ways of Something has included work by several key participants in the net.art and New Media fields featuring Killian, along with LaTurbo Avedon, Jeremy Bailey, Jacob Ciocci, Faith Holland, Rollin Leonard, Rosa Menkman, Sara Ludy, Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Carla Gannis, Jennifer Chan, Anthony Antonellis, Claudia Hart, Angela Washko, and Chiara Passa among others.

In 2016, Killian collaborated with artist A.L. Steiner on a web-based book titled "Deep Inside My In/Box" which has since been taken offline but was an ever-shifting archive of images and writing shared between the two over social media, texts and emails.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

Killian often works with collections of images that are mined off the internet. Killian was commissioned by Electric Objects to create "my5t1c m3d1t4t10nz," a series of 5 looping video pieces that launched in the summer of 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.electricobjects.com/artists/125/nicole-killian/|title=Nicole Killian|website=Electric Objects|access-date=2018-01-02}} The project explored the relationship with smartphones, considering how they are transformed into altars for focus and imbue the machines with spiritual meaning.{{Cite web|url=https://zine.electricobjects.com/interviews/nicole-killian/|title=Nicole Killian - Artist Interview Series|website=Electric Objects|access-date=2018-01-02}}

Since 2014 Killian has been active in the art book world and collaborates with artist Sarah Faith Gottesdiener on a publication titled ISSUES that focuses on work from artists, writers and designers with a feminist/queer/POC perspective.{{Citation|last=KCHUNG TV|title=With Aaron Cabral: LA art book fair {{!}} Nicole Killian|date=2015-02-08|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJsQ9LmBKBw|accessdate=2018-01-02}}{{Cite news|url=https://blog.needsupply.com/2017/03/03/dad-hats-and-the-laabf/|title=Dad Hats at the LAABF|work=Blog|publisher=Need Supply Co.|access-date=2018-01-02|language=en}} At the 2017 Los Angeles Art Book Fair Paper Magazine noted Killian as one of the "6 Feminist Artists and Zine Makers to Know."{{Cite news|url=http://www.papermag.com/6-feminist-artists-zine-makers-2288765419.html|title=6 Feminist Artists and Zine Makers to Know from the LA Printed Matter Book Fair|date=2017-02-27|work=PAPERMAG|access-date=2018-01-02|language=en}}

They have also collaborated with Savannah Knoop and frequently writes for art journal WOW HUH where they have discussed the comparisons between Carly Rae Jepsen and Kurt Cobain and interviewed LaTurbo Avedon.{{Cite web|url=http://wowhuh.com/posts/034.html|title=W O W H U H|website=wowhuh.com|language=en|access-date=2018-01-02}}{{Cite web|url=http://wowhuh.com/posts/052.html|title=W O W H U H|website=wowhuh.com|language=en|access-date=2018-01-02}} Their essay The Transgressive Girl was published by The Journal of Feminist Scholarship.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jfsonline.org/issue12-13/articles/killian/|title=The Journal of Feminist Scholarship|website=www.jfsonline.org|access-date=2018-01-02}}

In March 2018, Killian participated in Fully Booked{{Cite web|url=http://fullybooked.ae/|title=Fully Booked Dubai|website=fullybooked.ae|language=en|access-date=2018-04-13}} in Dubai, and spoke on the panel entitled Why do we make what we make?{{Cite news|url=http://www.magpie.ae/event/fully-booked/|title=Fully Booked|date=2018-02-15|access-date=2018-04-13|language=en-GB}}

Killian was recently invited by the Walker Art Center to guest edit a piece for Soundboard titled How Can We Queer Graphic Design Education Without Compromise? {{Cite web|url=https://walkerart.org/magazine/soundboard-queering-design-education-kristina-ketola-bore|title= "How Can We Queer Graphic Design Education Without Compromise?"}} The piece included work by Ramon Tejada, Kristina Ketola Bore, Nate Pyper and Ginger Brooks Takahashi. This was published in July 2018. In September 2018 Killian was included in queer.archive.work,{{Cite web|url=http://queer.archive.work|title= queer.archive.work}} a new project by Paul Soulellis. Their piece "A SCENE AT THE SEA BUS STOP SONG" was performed at MoMA PS1 during the New York Art Book Fair for Publishing as Practice as Resistance by Paul Soulellis {{Cite web|url=http://nyartbookfair.com/program|title= Publishing as Practice as Resistance by Paul Soulellis}} along with work by Jack Halberstam, Nate Pyper, Sal Randolph and Nora Kahn. In tandem with this performance, Killian sat on a panel titled Queer Publishing as Community Practice {{Cite web|url=http://nyartbookfair.com/program|title= Queer Publishing as Community Practice}} with Be Oakley of Genderfail Press and Caroline Paquita of Pegacorn Press. This was organized by Sara Hamerman for the Contemporary Artists' Books Conference. The panel was featured in a Hyperallergic piece titled A Preview of Printed Matter’s Annual NY Art Book Fair, Featuring 73 First-Time Exhibitors {{Cite web|url=https://hyperallergic.com/460772/a-preview-of-printed-matters-annual-new-york-art-book-fair-featuring-73-first-time-exhibitors/|title= A Preview of Printed Matter’s Annual NY Art Book Fair, Featuring 73 First-Time Exhibitors}}

In January 2019, Killian was published by the AIGA's Eye on Design in a dialogue with Meg Miller titled [https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-queering-design-education-actually-look-like-in-practice/ "What Does Queering Design Education Actually Look Like in Practice?"] In this interview Killian discussed how they question the space of a classroom to reconsider what design education looks like. They offered some insight into their pedagogical methods, from showcasing queer artists and artists of color, to creating new conversations amongst students.{{Cite web|url=https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-queering-design-education-actually-look-like-in-practice/|title=What Does "Queering Design Education" Actually Look Like in Practice?|date=2019-01-28|website=Eye on Design|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-05}} They have given talks at both Central Saint Martins in London and Konstfack in Stockholm on the topics of generosity as a form of queering in design practice and pedagogy. The lecture was titled [https://www.konstfack.se/en/News/Calendar/2020/Queering-as-Praxis-with-Nicole-Killian--Open-School-Lecture/ Queering as Praxis]

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Category:1982 births

Category:Living people

Category:American artists