Kaleidoscope Kandeo by Deniz Nicole

This interactive installation for all to experience and enjoy will be on display in the Museum’s Plaza for ten days only! Come play at the Museum September 28—October 6, 2019.

Kaleidoscope Kandeo by Deniz Nicole is on display at the Museum of Ventura County Saturday, September 28—October 6, 2019. Deniz Nicole’s artistic sensibility evolved from a lifelong passion for experiential science, her early studies ranging from astronomy to physics to the very physical practice of classical ballet. These diverse interests allowed her to view the mysteries of the universe from the unique perspective of equality. She knows that she is just as much a body moving through space as any heavenly body, and her artwork invites all of us to experience the universe in the same way.

Join us at the Museum for three special events in support of Kaleidoscope Kandeo by Deniz Nicole.

First, join us Museum of Ventura County on Saturday, September 28, 2019 from 11—7 p.m. for ArtWalk Ventura. Be the first to view and play inside Kaleidoscope Kandeo post-Burning Man, and explore the Museum’s other latest exhibit, California Cool: Mid-century Modernism on the Central Coast.

Join us at the Museum of Ventura County for First Friday: After Hours at the Museum on Friday, October 4, 2019 from 5—9 p.m. The Flame & Fork food truck will be serving up delicious eats, beer and wine will be available for purchase and a DJ will be spinning tunes.

To closeout Kaleidoscope Kandeo, bring the whole family to Free First Sunday on October 6, 2019 from 11—2 p.m. and create your own miniature kaleidoscope! As always, admission to the Museum is free.

A self-taught artist, Deniz first sought expression through traditional painting but quickly moved on to pyropainting, a technique she invented herself through a series of not-so-controlled experiments exposing pigment to fire. The resulting works – nebulous, emotive bursts of translucent dye on glass – seem to warp and evolve with every change in the light, forcing the eye to continuously re-evaluate the images, and thus making each viewer a participant in the works merely by perceiving them.  

In this same vein of interactive art, Deniz has also brought her vision to a much larger scale, building her art installation Carousel Candeo for Burning Man 2016. The carousel will consist of several community-created, pyropainted disks that will spin and project light differently throughout each day of the festival. In addition to interaction with each individual painting, the carousel will effectively place participants inside a spinning kaleidoscope, up-ending their normal experience of context, age, body, gravity, and perception all at once. 

Future works will follow this same trajectory of liminal, experiential, installation projects. Deniz hopes to continue using seemingly mundane physical and chemical reactions to unbalances the senses in fantastic fashion, take us out of our everyday lives, and ultimately reintroduce us to wonder, discovery, and connectedness – to the world and to one another.