Leona Nikolic has a style that is both vintage and modern. Her collared denim dress and cozy cardigan are reminiscent of the ‘60s while her Doc Martens make the outfit more suited to the year 2012.
Nikolic, a third-year art history student at Carleton, is interested in this kind of ambiguity.
She’s curating an art show called Nostalgica at La Petite Mort on Nov. 9 that will explore society’s current obsession with the past.
“Basically the idea behind it is this irrational nostalgia that I feel our generation, contemporary society, has for things that are from the past that we never got to experience in our own lives,” Nikolic explains.
Things like record players and film cameras are in vogue once again, and Nikolic says she isn’t sure why.
She has a record collection, and says she even bought an SLR camera at Value Village last year, even though these technologies are out of date.
“It’s really not necessary and it’s not even convenient or the cheapest method anymore,” she says.
Nikolic chose three artists for the show whose works explore tensions and ambiguity between the past, present, and future.
For example, local photographer Blair Smith has Polaroid pictures in the show that Nikolic says look like they could be from any decade.
Smith and Stéphanie Paiement are emerging artists, while Bozica Radjenovic is established and known in the art community. Nikolic specifically chose Smith and Paiement because she says she wanted to give new artists an opportunity to get noticed while she chose Radjenovic in order to draw a crowd.
The chance to curate her own show came when Nikolic interned at La Petite Mort from February to April in 2012.
“I expressed to [gallerist Guy Bérubé] I would like to help with event planning or curating,” she says.
“He was like ‘Why don’t you have your own show?’ and I was just like ‘What do you mean, have my own show?’ ”
It’s easy to tell that art is a major part of Nikolic’s life. Her internship at La Petite Mort isn’t her only experience in the art world — some of her endeavours include volunteering at the Ottawa Art Gallery and the Carleton University Art Gallery. She’s also been involved with the Art History and History and Theory of Architecture Students Society.
Last year Nikolic and a few other students in that society got to curate a show at the Carleton art gallery in conjunction with the Colin Campbell exhibit.
But Nikolic says the upcoming Nostalgica show is her first time curating alone.
“I feel really privileged to be doing this because it’s really unheard of for an undergrad to be curating at all,” she says.
Art is a major part of Nikolic’s life but it isn’t her only interest. She says she also enjoys writing poetry and short stories and loves riding her bike everywhere.
As for the future, she says she expects to begin work on a master’s degree. She lists curating at a gallery and a visual art writer as possible career options.
Nostalgica will be her first step in that direction.
