Nicole Havekost (b. 1970) is an artist currently working and living in Rochester, MN. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design as an undergraduate, earning her BFA in printmaking. She then attended the University of New Mexico, earning her MFA in Printmaking as well.
After graduating, Niki moved with her husband to Michigan. She taught Drawing and Printmaking at both Adrian College and Sienna Heights University for ten years. After becoming a mother and relocating to Minnesota, Niki has had more time for her creative work. She has exhibited her work in Eureka, California; Dallas, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts and Tasmania, Australia. She completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 1997. Niki is a 2020, 2018 and 2013 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Statement:
I am fascinated by bodies. They are simultaneously beautiful and grotesque.
While coarse hair grows, revelations of desire can arrive.
While the lungs take air, bones degrade.
Once pregnant, the same body hosts faltering hormones.
Despite love, wounds ooze.
I can actively influence these processes of my physical form, but I cannot control any of them fully. My body is mine, it is also an organism with its own needs. I am compelled to explore this exquisite, repulsive organism that exists beyond my desires. My early work explored my body and its discipline with very careful and precise forms. These new felt forms allow me to explore this growing intimacy and acceptance I have with the organism that is my physical form. The act of sewing is integral to these new forms. Piercing, pulling and closing, each stitch is aggressive and restorative. Stitching is an act of accumulation; it is a collection of marks, moments and attachments that give shape to a form. Sewing these forms, I rest in my own body more fully.