NICOLE SALIMBENE
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    • BOOKS OF NOURISHMENT
    • SEED SCATTERING
    • WE ARE WATER
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    • RECEIPT TAPESTRY SERIES
    • UNFOLDING
    • KNOWING YOUR WATER
    • MOVED BY WATER SERIES
    • AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CONSUMPTION: FIVE SCROLLS
    • DIVINE FEMININE SERIES
    • MAKEUP SERIES: TREMBLING
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    • MENDING
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UNFOLDING

Picture
UNFOLDING, detail
“‘Field’ originates in the word ‘fold’. We are held in folds of earth, twilight, and dawn. Our bodies are full of folds, our brain, our lips, our eyes, the creases and overlaps are there, even if we don’t see them. These folds that time successively unwraps, a gift of revelation”.
                                                                                                                                                        -Sarah Robinson, Nesting: body, dwelling, mind

In the lost art of the letter, we lose the embodied gesture of unfolding something slowly. To stare and search, to wonder and wander across the fields either in maps or letters. To behold for a moment content that cannot be swiped away. The patience of waiting for a letter to arrive. The sharing of wisdom and presence germinating in the time and space where the possibility of connection is drawn apart and pulled together without immediacy. Perhaps it is nostalgia or metaphor or longing, but I want to hold and unfold and fold something. And then release it. As the poet John O’ Donuhue states, “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” Or like the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, “I want to unfold. I don’t want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie.” Unfolding is an invitation to reflect on what is slowly being revealed in the folds of your life.

In the interactive installation, you are invited to step into the space for an intimate look, and to sit at the ironing-board-transformed-desk, opening the envelopes placed inside a wooden box. Inside the envelopes, poems/quotes/images are intended to  provoke further examination of the connections between the ordinary and sublime objects and gestures presented within the installation, as well as, for the viewers to embody the metaphor of folding and unfolding and the relational poetics examined in this piece.
Group Exhibition:
Soil to Skin
Silber Art Gallery 
Goucher College
1021 Dulaney Valley Road, Baltimore, MD 

Exhibit dates:
February 13, 2025 - March 28, 2025

Opening Reception:
February 13, 2025

Gallery HoursMon: Closed
Tues, Wed, Fri – Sun: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Thurs: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. 


Soil to Skin, a collaboration with Goucher College Art Galleries and Pellis /\ Terra, unveils a powerful synthesis of art, science, and community dialogue to address the legacies of land use, pollution, climate change, and environmental justice. Through interactive sculptures, archival photography, paintings, and collaborative public programming, the exhibition seeks to deepen our understanding of environmental issues while inspiring cultural shifts toward a sustainable future.

Artists: Lynn Cazabon, Se Jong Cho, Melissa Penley Cormier, Elena DeBold, Brooks Dierdroff, Rachel Gaurdiola, Artemis Herber, Sky Hopinka, Ara Koh, Jonna McKone, Nicole Salimbene, and Raymond Thompson Jr.

© 2025 Nicole Salimbene

  • Works
    • BOOKS OF NOURISHMENT
    • SEED SCATTERING
    • WE ARE WATER
    • ARTFORUM TAPESTRY SERIES
    • RECEIPT TAPESTRY SERIES
    • UNFOLDING
    • KNOWING YOUR WATER
    • MOVED BY WATER SERIES
    • AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CONSUMPTION: FIVE SCROLLS
    • DIVINE FEMININE SERIES
    • MAKEUP SERIES: TREMBLING
    • SCAPULAR SERIES
    • MENDING
    • STUDIES IN INVASIVENESS
    • COMMUNITY PROJECTS
    • ARCHIVE >
      • STONE TO STONE
      • PROTEST RECEIPTS
      • FIGURES IN CEMENT
      • BOX SERIES
      • FACTORY SHRINE
  • ABOUT
  • PRESS
  • NEWS
  • WORKSHOPS
  • CONTACT