Nicolette Spear captures the paradoxical nature of technology, its ability to both connect and isolate us, while encouraging viewers to reflect on their own relationship with the digital world. Her incorporation of app icons, arranged throughout the figures in her paintings, symbolizes the familiar layout of a device’s home screen, highlighting the pervasive nature of digital addiction. This juxtaposition of technology and the human form suggests that technology has become an integral part of our existence.
Nicolette Spear’s “Dopamine” series elicits a range of reactions from viewers. For some the series acts as a reminder of technology’s pervasive influence on dily life while for others the series becomes a playful game of recognizing which app is which.
Nicolette was born in Honolulu, HI, but spent most of her childhood in a rural town in Maine, where she grew up on a horse farm. She graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2009 with a BFA in painting and now lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
She has shown her fine art publicly since 2010 and is now represented by the Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles. Her next solo show will be in January 2025.