The Jamaican British theorist Stuart Corridor referred to as cultural identification “a matter of ‘turning into’ in addition to ‘being’”, a nod to the duality of post-colonial existence. The artist Nickola Pottinger takes this dichotomy head-on in her first solo museum exhibition, fos born, on view on the Aldrich Up to date Artwork Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut and curated by the establishment’s chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart.
Pottinger’s emotive, natural sculptures, totems to her Jamaican heritage and West Indian upbringing within the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, implicate the viewer in their very own “matter of ‘turning into’”—fraught, ferocious undertakings full of outdated magic and new views.
She calls these figures duppies, a reference to the chimeric, night-walking spirits of Jamaican folklore, and constructs them from furnishings, bones, hen cages, gilded Yagua leaves and a panoply of different recycled supplies that toe the road between trash and treasure. Her creatures are draped in pigmented paper pulp that Pottinger creates from household paperwork, rubble and first drafts utilizing her mom’s handheld kitchen mixer, yet one more layer within the private and cultural palimpsest of her observe. Pottinger’s ghosts have a presence that’s each unsettling and hypnotic, inviting viewers into her historical past.
Fos born attracts on the latest delivery of Pottinger’s daughter, Zora, as its thematic centrepiece. The marvelously lumpy Give tanks and praises (2025) incorporates a solid of the artist’s pregnant torso, positioning the act of human creation as each a young and carnal course of.
This sculpture is considered one of a group of name new works paying tribute to motherhood that the artist created specifically for the exhibition. Whether or not hanging from the wall, sitting on a pedestal or mendacity on the ground, Pottinger’s humanoid reliquaries discover familiarity within the seemingly unknown, braiding disparate narratives collectively into talismans. There’s a flux to those sculptures, a way that their “turning into” may occur at any second and in any anarchic trend. A part of this stress lies in Pottinger’s penchant for line—initially educated in drawing, not in sculpture, she developed a extremely private, speculative process for her duppies, lending them a singular, haunting high quality.
The Artwork Newspaper caught up with Pottinger to speak ghosts, spirits and childhood bedrooms.
Set up view of Nickola Pottinger: fos born on the Aldrich Up to date Artwork Museum, till 11 January 2026 Courtesy of the artist and Mrs. © Nickola Pottinger. Photograph: Olympia Shannon.
The Artwork Newspaper: Are you fascinated about how these figures speak to one another within the galleries when you’re planning a present?
Nickola Pottinger: This was really my first time actually inserting the works for an exhibition of mine. Beforehand, I made the work, after which the gallerist and I might simply set it up. This time, [Aldrich chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart] and I sat down with a ground plan I had drawn out and my husband printed photographs of every of the person works and we mocked it up; we wished to make it possible for it had a way of the narrative all through the three rooms wherein the works are proven.
There’s some older work in there—the genesis of the observe that started as a wall aid was from a present in 2022. We have been attempting to be very considerate about how the work has advanced over time and find out how to spotlight the way in which themes and supplies reappeared all through the work. Even the position of the work—for one of many bigger sculptures, there are drawings on the floor that mirror the gestures of the bodily sculpture that is diagonally throughout from it.
All of it occurred intuitively. I do not go into a piece saying, “I’ll make a goat.” I study and make via utilizing my arms. There is a channeling course of as I am working that takes me to a different place. And so I am at all times rewarded with this shock, this reward ultimately. I might say 75% of the way in which via the work, I’ve a greater understanding of the route wherein I am going. After which there’s an enhancing course of that occurs as properly the place I am constructing, however then additionally breaking it down bodily, both throwing the work or breaking the work and constructing it once more.
Once you discuss making as a type of enhancing, is there a way of regeneration within the work? How does that impression the way in which we’re inspired to consider these figures?
I come out of a robust drawing observe and have drawn for a number of years. I at all times wished to discover sculpture, however was intimidated by it, and by no means took it at school, in all probability as a result of it was the costliest class and it was at all times largely males taking the category. I sort of graduated from making these collage works, which I made in keeping with the identical rules as I described. It is at all times breaking and constructing. In a paper format, I used to be tearing and reducing up my very own drawings and constructing these surfaces and textures. They have been fairly large and quilt-like. It nonetheless used lots of a few of the supplies I exploit now, like oil pastels and watercolours.
Throughout the pandemic, after I was dwelling and I used to be spending way more time with household who additionally lives close by, we might get collectively in our yard and we’d inform tales. I might go to my household dwelling and gather issues that have been in my sisters’ and my room rising up. We nonetheless have e book reviews and ceramics that we made in highschool. I had mainly foraged my childhood bed room and brought it dwelling with me.
Earlier than lockdown, I used to be enthusiastic about making artwork in a unique atmosphere and never reaching for a similar instruments on a regular basis, to interrupt that behavior and train a unique muscle. My husband, who’s additionally an artist, paints and makes sculptures and does movie, so there was this very nice cross-pollination of supplies and modes of constructing. At the moment, these reliefs for me have been sort of symbollic when it comes to the feel aid that I used to be creating after which additionally aid emotively at the moment. They have been totems for me; I used to be making them at dwelling and hanging them in our lounge.
I used to be actually nervous returning to the studio after I felt protected to be round different folks. I used to be actually nervous about how the brand new reliefs would sit with my collaged paper work, as a result of I used to be very delicate concerning the development and I did not wish to veer off path. I used to be introducing these wall aid works to my paper collage works and it made sense to me. This was the appropriate route to go. So I obtained a blessing from my drawings to proceed to pursue this format of constructing.
It felt good that it was nonetheless utilizing paper, which was at all times a medium within the work however turned so particular as a result of it was archives and paperwork from both my mother and father at dwelling, my grandparents or my sisters. By recontextualising them, I may assume again to all of the issues that I’ve realized and the tales I didn’t know. I came upon 37 years later that I sort of considered these archives and paperwork as a unique type of storytelling—not by mouth, however on this three-dimensional type. Numerous the work is about constructing upon legacy, and lots of it’s homage to household, my heritage, my ancestors and the way I used to be raised.
Nickola Pottinger, Sunday college, 2025 Courtesy of the artist and Mrs. © Nickola Pottinger. Photograph: Olympia Shannon
Being a mom impacts the inventive course of immensely. Did it change the way in which you considered creation and the way in which you performed your observe?
I had recognized about this present since earlier than I did [Art Basel Miami Beach with Mrs. Gallery in 2023], so I had a while to consider it. I did two exhibits again to again and I used to be exhausted, so I took a break for a number of weeks after which discovered I used to be pregnant.
The biggest work within the present, I started whereas I used to be pregnant. I’m accustomed to engaged on the ground, to getting bodily with my items. I believe anybody that paints [or] makes sculpture is aware of that making artwork could be very bodily. I had a tough time; I nonetheless obtained in there, however I moved sluggish. Behind my thoughts, I used to be actually excited to see the work remodel after having our child, and that turned a mantra for me. I used to be like, “I really feel like it will change the way in which I work as a result of I am gonna be in a unique frame of mind.” That is all I saved fascinated about. I used to be actually curious what me post-pregnancy was going to be like.
There’s two of the works which can be within the present which can be casts of my stomach. I used to be considering for some time, “Ought to I solid my stomach? Ought to I do that? Do I wish to put this into the work?” It is already autobiographical, so I ended up having my husband go into the studio with me and he solid my stomach. That evening, the minute the solid was drying on my pores and skin, I began to have contractions. After which two days later I had Zora. I felt like she was at all times in collaboration with me all the being pregnant. My mindset was that I used to be simply doing all of it for her. So yeah, it was onerous, however I would not change any of it.
Do you see your position as an artist as a non secular one? Do you consider your self as a creative agent or as a vessel for concepts?
I really feel like I am the one making the work, however I additionally really feel like there is a increased self I’m speaking with. I am a vessel in some methods as a result of I am a container for my very own spirit. I am at all times attempting to attach with spirit. I am at all times fascinated about what spark of magic or uncooked emotion comes out within the work, as a result of that feels trustworthy.
Even with the way in which the work is made, like utilizing my mother’s cake mixer that she had me combine black cake each vacation throughout Christmas, I’m comforted that a few of my childhood is working with me and I am working with it. It’s bizarre working with my youthful self after which issues get revealed that receded into the again of my reminiscence, which is like at all times actually stunning and a present on the similar time. Generally I take into consideration grandparents I grew up with which can be not right here, and I take into consideration grandparents which can be nonetheless right here however reside distant. They’re very a lot part of the work, too, as a result of I attempt to make work about issues that I do know. And I do know solely as a lot as I do about my private historical past and what my household has been via and what we have lived. It’s actually essential that I am listening to myself and on this state of channeling these recollections and ideas after I’m making the work.
Nickola Pottinger: fos born, till 11 January 2026, on the Aldrich Up to date Artwork Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
