Kingston artist Nicholas Crombach’s newest large-scale sculptural work is chock-full with the joys of collecting, and reveals surfaces ready for discovery and wonder. With each sculpture, Crombach designs a complex scaffolding structure for supporting a playful cross-section. Think futuristic prototypes for archeological museum displays. Associating material histories, texture, and colour, these cross-sections emerged from a previous body of work in which Crombach embedded differing materials within rock-like surfaces. Here, they are sliced across as if suspended in air.

Nicholas Crombach is a Kingston-based sculptor. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Installation from OCAD University in 2012. Crombach has received numerous grants and awards, including the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award in 2016. He has presented solo exhibitions in Canada, London, and Berlin. His exhibition, Landslip, was presented in 2023 at Art Mûr Gallery in Montreal and the Woodstock Art Gallery in Woodstock, and in 2024 at the Karsh-Masson Gallery in Ottawa. Reviews dedicated to his work have been published by Border Crossings, Espace and Via Des Arts. Crombach’s public art commissions include Horse and Cart, Kingston, Ontario, Wind Vane, Woodstock, Ontario and Flock, Niagara Falls, Ontario. His work is represented in private and public collections including the Woodstock Art Gallery, the City of Kingston Civic Collection and the City of Ottawa Art Collection. From 2016–2017, Crombach participated in a year-long residency at The Florence Trust (London, UK) and in 2022 was artist-in-residence at the Studios at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. Crombach has received support from public agencies including the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Hero image: Nicholas Crombach, Cross section I (detail view),  2024, found objects and found materials, steel, epoxy, construction adhesive. Collection of the artist