ASPEN, CO.- The Aspen Art Museum presents Nicole Wermers, on view through July 22, 2007. German artist Nicole Wermers creates playful, Modernist sculpture inspired by ubiquitous elements of everyday society, including airport security metal detectors and ashtrays. Her Untitled Forcefields are inspired by the structures at the exits of department stores. In her Kusine —German for female cousin—Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column is updated, feminized, and transformed.

Although Wermers is a sculptor in the traditional sense—working on discrete objects and placing them in relationship to each other as well as to the space in which they are contained—her choice of materials conveys a wry sense of humor. In a beachscape constructed by the artist, cigarette butts are intermixed with the sand, becoming, as Wermers states, “leftovers of a very elegant but unhealthy way of wasting time.” She has also punctured the exterior of an exhibition space in England with a giant earring.

Wermers also creates light boxes featuring magnificent collages of minerals. Culled from old books, the reproductions present a sumptuousness that cleverly mimics the actual gems. For her first one-person museum exhibition in the United States, Wermers will assemble complete series of works that have not previously been shown together. All of the included works address dematerialization or the negation of volume.

Nicole Wermers received her MFA from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London, in 1999. She has had one-person exhibitions at the Camden Arts Center, London; Secession, Vienna; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; migros museum für gegenwartskunst, Zürich; and the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany. She has also been selected to participate in the 2006 Tate Triennial. Organized by the Aspen Art Museum. Funded in part by the AAM National Council.