Nicole Duennebier: After Nature

Nicole Duennebier's paintings exist in a space between beauty and decay, where nature reveals itself as both seductive and unsettling. Drawing on the traditions of 16th-century Dutch still-life painting, she creates works that refuse idealized depictions of nature, instead embracing what she calls the reality of living things: "Everything is always spewing, dripping, rotting a little."
Like the Old Masters who painted vibrant fruits touched by the first fuzz of decay, Duennebier finds equal attraction in both bloom and rot. For her, these aren't allegorical warnings about mortality but textural fascinations—each state demanding the same meticulous attention and care. This commitment to precision creates paintings that oscillate between dreams and mystique, familiar yet surreal.
In this exhibition, she’s presenting new paintings that present arches and openings, voids that suggest passage into unknown territories. They beckon viewers forward while maintaining a sense of mystery about what lies beyond. Simultaneously, they allow the viewer to rest, perhaps as a cave where they can shelter from what is surrounding them. In dialogue, the show features earlier drawings that she titles “cartouches”—a term referencing the decorative ovals that framed important inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Duennebier is drawn to the cartouche as both an ornamental frame and an empty vessel waiting to be filled. By calling her drawings cartouches, she transforms absence itself into decoration, turning the void into something both inviting and slightly ominous.

"There's no place to hide in drawing. When a line is there, it's there...no turning back." - Nicole Duennebier