(b. 1991 Singapore, lives and works in New York City)
Nabilah Nordin’s materially driven practice explores the formal possibilities and surface potential of sculpture. Her elaborate abstract works are unruly, interlacing calligraphic lines with voluminous masses in dense configurations. Beginning by welding steel armatures, Nordin exaggerates the physicality of her forms so that they seem to defy gravity, teetering on the edge of collapse and multiplying uncontrollably. She is primarily interested in expressing the physicality of tension – how sculpture can embody the underlying forces of natural phenomena, such as growth, depletion, decay, collapse, and entanglement. Her structures often appear precarious, propped up with stilts, scaffolds, and makeshift supports borrowed from the industrial world, interrupting the logic of their organic shapes.
The surfaces of her sculptures are subjected to an expansive range of treatments, from 17th century faux-marble plaster and ancient lime clay techniques to automotive spray, oxidizing rust paint and bronze casting. When these methods are applied to her contorted forms, they produce contradictory visual logics, like knotted marble, or convulsing cement. Nordin persistently undermines the expectations of her chosen mediums, upending the material hierarchies and aesthetic values associated with her materials. Though the works may first evoke associations – weathered artefacts, complex machinery, or lyrical scriptures – these readings unravel upon closer inspection. By resisting familiar references, the works demand a visceral engagement, one rooted not in recognition, but in sensation, presence, and material vitality.
Nabilah Nordin has exhibited at museums, biennales and galleries across Australia, Asia and the USA. Recent solo exhibitions include Island, New York; Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles; the Australian Embassy, Washington DC; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Singapore Biennale; Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea; Neon Parc, Melbourne; and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. Her work has been included in group exhibitions including Ryan Lee, New York; Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles; La Loma; Los Angeles; the Potter Museum, Melbourne; Bundanon Art Museum, Illaroo; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; RISING, Melbourne; Murray Art Museum, Albury. Nordin’s work is held in public collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Monash University Museum of Art; National Gallery of Victoria; and MIIA Collection.
island, New York
Neon Parc, Hong Kong
Neon Parc, Melbourne
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles
Washington DC, United States
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Neon Parc, Cologne
Neon Parc, Melbourne
Heide MOMA, Melbourne
Missing Persons, Melbourne
COMA Gallery, Sydney
Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea
Singapore Biennale, Singapore
Ryan Lee, New York
La Loma x Vielmetter, Los Angeles
Potter Museum, Melbourne
Make Room x Meeting Point, Los Angeles
Carl Larsson x Invisible Dynamics, Los Angeles
Megan Mulrooney, Aspen Art Fair
RISING, Melbourne
La Loma, Los Angeles
National Art School, Sydney
Futures Gallery, Melbourne
Parrasch Heijnen, Miami Beach
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles
COMA Gallery, Sydney
Bundanon Art Museum
National Gallery of Victoria
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Canberra Art Biennial
McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery
Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Melbourne
RISING, Melbourne
Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury
Art Gallery of South Australia
MUMA, Melbourne
Yavuz Gallery, Sydney
LON Gallery, Melbourne
Neon Parc, Melbourne
The Commercial, Sydney
Firstdraft, Sydney
Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
Artbank, Sydney
Blindside, Melbourne
Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
Thames & Hudson
Vogue, Australia
KCRW Art Insider
ABC Radio National
Art Gallery
of
New South Wales
New South Wales
Vogue, Australia
The Saturday Paper
Catalogue Essay
Art Collector
MeMO
Catalogue Essay
Art Guide
Art Collector
Frieze Magazine
Art Collector
Catalogue Essay
Berita Harian
Art & Australia
Art Asia Pacific