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NIPPLE TWIST.

A look into the nipple’s physical and philosophical connotations at The Nomadic Art Gallery

Leuven-based Nomadic Art Gallery, founded in 2020 by Gie and Arthur Buerms, explores the New Zealand contemporary art scene with its second on-site show, Nipple Twist. The group show including artists such as Oliver Cain (b. 1996, UK) Chloe Marsters (b. 1989, Auckland) Merijn Verhelst (b. 1991, Leuven), Amat Gueye (b. 1995, Paris) and Layla Saâd (b. 1997, Liège) focuses on the analysis of the semantic and philosophical connotations of this “problematic” bodily part: the nipple.

Layla Saad - Der Rum 2 (2018) Inkjet print on aluminum- 50 x 75 cm

The Nomadic Art Gallery will also host a digital exhibition of contemporary Pacific art in 2022 called Ocean Breeze, which will revisit the groundbreaking Bottled Ocean exhibition of 1994 that introduced contemporary Pacific art to the world stage for the first time.

Oliver Cain, Yellow Pink – 400 x 450

Using the nipple as a metaphor, Nipple Twist is a two-part exhibition that explores gender and sexuality through the lens of the nipple’s myriad shapes and meanings. Playfully exploring the hushed body feature’s many meanings, both materially and in the common fantasy, these five artists put into question cultural practices and social conventions.

Oliver Cain, Blue Yellow – 320 x 375

Turning to the material, literal, understanding of the nipple, Oliver Cain, an English-New Zealand artist based in Auckland, sets the tone for the rest of the exhibition. The physicality of his subverted ceramic sculptures reflects that of the subject at hand, as he boldly appropriates and transforms its form. Cast in a plurality of shapes and sizes, the strangely frivolous nipples pop out of the seeming confines of their rectangular frames. Pointing to Cain’s curious post-pop art touch, the bright, contrasting colors of the 24 ceramic nipple-wooden framed sculptures place the nipple on the center stage as a newly found irreverence comes to replace the initial sense of eroticism.

Chloe Marsters, Janolus (2021) -Ink and marker on paper 42 x 29,7 cm

With the help of Auckland-based artist Chloe Marsters, Cain’s probing becomes deeper. Marsters creates an organic, sensuous nudity that is reflected in the flowing natural components, stalks and insects alike, that compose and cover her feminine figures’ skins. The pieces gain an additional, though untouchable, materiality — subtly suggestive, at once boldly seductive, and totally fetishized — as if they are surrounded by spikes and leaves.

Chloe Marsters, Pebble Hook-Tip (2021) -Ink and marker on paper 42 x 29,7 cm

Layla Saad, Belgian artist based in Liège, is known for her sensual pictures that place the fetish on the sacred. In both her choice of subjects, the anonymous women she encounters on the outside of society, and in her partial portrayal of their bodies, there is controversy. Viewers are compelled to face their own, irrational projections: those of a culture that demands a rejection of the body, only to give it an all-the-more strong attraction because of it. In conclusion, Cain, Marsters, and Saad change the meaning of the nipple by depicting it in a straightforward manner, revealing it as a dynamic social construct.

Layla Saad - Der Rum 1 (2018) Inkjet print on aluminum- 50 x 75 cm

Merijn Verhelst and Amat Gueye, Belgian artists working in Brussels and Leuven, provide a conceptual interpretation of the term: their works are the nipple twist. Verhelst’s sculptural paintings are filled with scatological and sexual humor, conveying an initial sense of pointlessness. Viewers’ first reactions are visibly altered as points of access into the artist’s distinct universe, references to childhood reality and a hidden imagined emerge from the various layers of wooden works and areas of black paint seep from the apparently happy hues.

Merijn Verhelst, Untitled 1 (2021) Acrylic on wooden construction (82 x 60 x 3,75 cm)

Gueye, on the other hand, veers between technique and serendipity. His choice of materials and random subject matter reflects the dynamism of current society. His wooden paintings bear no resemblance to any specific imagery. A common visual language is suggested by hazy shapes, which indicate the faintest clues of shared pop icons and cartoons, as well as childhood recollections. Viewers are forced to fend for themselves on the edge of the imagined and the actual when confronted with a hazy meaning.

Amat Gueye, Bataille sur une île (2021)- Ink on glossy paper on mounted wooden box (61 X 84 cm)

The nipple’s many physical, cultural, historical, and personal implications are given voice in the show, allowing visitors to experience their own nipple twist. The artists often battle against the stream of conservatism and repression, proclaiming instead a freshly discovered feeling of semantic, and global, freedom by highlighting the instability of these meanings.

Oliver Cain, Blue Pink L – 280 x 390

Nipple Twist, group exhibition

Oliver Cain, Chloe Marsters, Merijn Verhelst, Amat Gueye, and Layla Saâd

The Nomadic Art Gallery
Brusselsesteenweg 168 3020 Herent (near Leuven), Belgium

December 3, 2021—January 14, 2022

Ocean Breeze

Digital group exhibition

Edith Amituanai, Sione Monu, Raymond Sagalopulutele, and Taute Vai

January 15—March 3, 2022

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