Nabilah Nordin (b. 1991 Singapore, lives and works in Los Angeles). Nabilah Nordin’s materially driven practice explores the formal possibilities and surface potential of sculpture. She employs improvised construction methods to build elaborate abstract forms, dramatizing their physicality so that they seem to defy gravity or teeter on the edge of collapse. Often working at scale, Nordin subverts the language of monumental sculpture by incorporating unconventional materials, such as deflated balloons and resin-coated bread. Taking visual cues from her immediate surroundings, her recent works draw upon coalescing, entangled structures. The surfaces of her sculptures are treated as disguises and sites of performance, often mimicking the appearance of natural phenomena, like rock formations or excavated artefacts. However, she resists direct representation, embracing ambiguity and drawing attention to the tactile and sensorial qualities of her materials. In doing so, she seeks to invest inanimate objects with agency, vitality and humour.
Nordin completed a Master of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2015, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University in 2013. Nordin’s work has been widely exhibited at museums, biennales and galleries across Australia and Asia. Solo presentations include Primary Matter, Parrasch Heijnen (Los Angeles), 2024; Australian Embassy Public Comission (Washington DC), 2023; Corinthian Clump, The National 4, Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), 2023; Prop Shop, Neon Parc (Melbourne), 2022; Birdbrush and Other Essentials, Heide MOMA (Melbourne), 2021; Changwon Sculpture Biennale (South Korea), 2020 and An Obstacle in Every Direction, Singapore Biennale (Singapore), 2019. Group shows include Keith Sonnier: Live in Your Head, Parrasch Heijnen (Los Angeles), 2023; Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), 2023; Fantastic Forms, Bundanon Art Museum (Australia), 2023; A thousand different angles, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery (Melbourne), 2022 and SIMMER, Murray Art Museum Albury (Albury), 2021.
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles
Washington DC, United States
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Neon Parc, Cologne, Germany
Neon Parc, Melbourne
Heide MOMA, Melbourne
Missing Persons, Melbourne
COMA Gallery, Sydney
Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea
Singapore Biennale, Singapore
National Art School, Sydney
Futures Gallery, Melbourne
Parrasch Heijnen, Miami Beach
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles
COMA Gallery, Sydney
Neon Parc, Melbourne
Neon Parc, Sydney
Bundanon Art Museum
National Gallery of Victoria
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Canberra Art Biennial
McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery
Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Melbourne
RISING, Melbourne
Neon Parc, Melbourne
Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury
Art Gallery of South Australia
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
KCRW Art Insider
Art Gallery of New South Wales
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