GREENSBORO – A table of elegant food, a crowd and the vibrant watercolors of Viiu Niiler greeted visitors to the opening reception of “A Short Retrospective through a Long Eye – The Paintings of Viiu Niiler,” Sunday afternoon, Sept. 22, in the Gallery at the Highland Center for the Arts.
Viiu Niiler, “Sunset Crater,” c. 1984, watercolor on paper, 23 x 30 inches. “While driving to the Grand Canyon, we came upon this beautiful landscape with black lava and incredible golds and rusts and greens. The light was beautiful. It is almost 1,000 years old.”
Gallery Curator Maureen O’Connor Burgess introduced the artist who gave a brief talk, sharing her journey and her perspective on life and her art.
Niiler is the consummate artist: a lifelong painter, glassmaker, tapestry weaver, fashion designer, gourmet cook, master gardener and musician. She braids all the facets of her life together to form a single creative expression that moves forward with a curated harmony.
Niiler was born in 1940, into chaotic war-torn Tartu, Estonia, just two months after the first Soviet takeover led her family to flee to Germany.
Viiu Niiler, “The Ohia Tree – Big Island, Hawaii,” c. 2012, watercolor on paper, 23 x 30 inches. “The Ohia tree, now endangered, is native and revered for its foliage and flowers. This tree is pushing new growth through lava overflow. The wood is dense and does not burn; the exposed roots are bleached white from the sun.”
Five years later, her family of nine had lived in five different displaced person camps before immigrating to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where they enrolled in school, learned English and began a new life.
Viiu says, before she could communicate well in English, she did so with illustrations. When her family eventually moved out to the country, she fell in love with the landscape and the peace that dwelled there. “The world became alive to me—in another dimension. This awakening overwhelmed the dark past, and as I became more attentive to my new environment, visually and emotionally, my mind and eyes never rested, searching for new information to respond to…as I could best—with art.“
Niiler draws on a location that inspires her, primarily her beloved Vermont, the Southwest and Hawaii.
She creates dozens of drawings, exploring changing light, shifting perspectives and emphasizing different textures of the scene before her.
Viiu Niiler, “Sunflowers from my Vermont Garden,” c. 2008, watercolor on paper, 23 x 30 inches.
Back in the studio, she translates her studies into painting on large, thick pieces of watercolor paper. Often those studies become multiple paintings, creating a series that addresses her communication with the natural environment.
Niiler celebrates the idea of community existing among diverse species. She believes the elements of the environment utilize a complex network of signals to communicate with one another. Through her work we can sense a dialogue happening, whether that is the surf crashing against a dark, rough shoreline, a school of fish moving as one or spring ferns pushing through the craggy, dry lava fields.
Consilience, the unity of knowledge achieved by connecting art with science, time with space – is evident in her work. Her paintings invite us to see the world as a pulse of cause and effect; a world akin to the rich dialogue that is Niiler’s remarkable multifaceted life as an artist.
The show runs through November 10. The Highland Center for the Arts Gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at 2875 Hardwick St.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
