nick bodoin b.1991

Interviewed and Edited by Richard Paget

August 28, 2023  

Nick Bodoin is a Canadian artist whose practice is a fusion of large portraiture and custom wooden installation. He recently completed a three-month artist residency program at the Mana Contemporary, an expansive cultural arts center located in Jersey City, NJ, and is excited to share his perspective on human connection. This interview investigates the rationale behind Nick’s choice of media, the message he aims to express, and his future plans as a 2D and 3D artist.

Q: What inspired you to reimagine the boundaries between painting and sculpture? How does this unique approach contribute to the message behind your work?

I am someone who has a lot of interests and I need a lot of variety to stay stimulated. As much as I enjoyed painting and woodworking separately, it never left me feeling fully fulfilled or that I was creating to the potential of my creativity. A combination of many mediums has been my way of connecting everything I’m interested in to form a practice that suits me better and represents my various inspirations.

Q: Why are you drawn especially to portraiture in your work? 

I love portraiture because nothing is more interesting than human interactions and relationships. The exchange between two people is the root of everything, and to me, that is the most powerful thing.

Q: How do you think your use of wooden sculpture enhances the storytelling in your artwork? Why did you specifically choose wood as a material?

Wood has always been a part of my life. I come from a small town and my dad built our house from the ground up. As a kid, I would help him with little renovation projects. I also played in the forest building tree houses and other things, so using tools to create with wood has been a part of me since childhood. I feel that wood is a relatable material in the sense that everything in an art gallery can feel foreign to the non-artist. The wood also allows me to make layers and hidden parts that are a huge part of the storytelling I am doing with my hidden series. 

Q: What kind of canvas do you use to paint your portraits and what was the reasoning behind that decision?

The portraits are on pressed wood. It is a material that is not normally seen in a gallery setting. It's a rough material usually used on construction sites. I felt drawn to this material as I found it complex and interesting, and I wanted to see how it could look when its interesting texture is used in the right way. There was a balance to be discovered with working with this material that took me a while to find. Now, I feel the wood and the paint flow together in a way that makes this raw construction material be appreciated in a new way. 

Q: Do you feel like there is a greater disconnect between humans in modern society? Why do you believe this is/isn’t the case?

I think we are in a very strange period of human history. It’s very paradoxical; I feel like there is more connection in some ways and less in others. I feel we are more connected as a species, but less so as individuals. I’m not sure where it’s heading, but I have faith in humans figuring it out and making things better. 

Q: How do you see yourself growing as a creator in the years to come? What other ways would you like to experiment with the interplay of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional mediums?

I want to push my art further into 3D and installation-oriented works. I always am interested in broadening the scope of what I’m working on, so I don’t know where it will end up. I am on a path and I want to just keep walking it. There’s no clear plan, just a series of artworks that evolve little by little each time.