Nika Fontaine: A Review in Glitter
Curated by Alexandra Meffert

Nika Fontaine – Transforming Material into Metaphysical

The years from 2012 to 2018 mark a pivotal moment in Nika Fontaine’s artistic journey. This period saw her return to a material often overlooked in fine art—glitter—and transform it into a profound, expressive pigment. Fontaine’s innovative use of glitter transcended its typical associations with decoration and consumerism, instead reimagining it as a tool to explore deeper spiritual and metaphysical themes.

In art history, glitter has often been used to invoke both playfulness and contemplation. Artists like Chris Martin have employed glitter to enhance the psychedelic vibrancy of their abstract works, using the material’s reflective quality to blur the boundaries between the ordinary and the cosmic. Similarly, Ann Veronica Janssens has used glitter and light to explore perception and sensory experience, creating immersive environments that challenge viewers’ spatial awareness.

Fontaine’s glitter works align with this tradition, but she also infuses her pieces with a deeper spiritual inquiry, drawing on practices like alchemy and Kabbalah. Through her shimmering surfaces, she invites viewers to journey into introspection, where the boundaries between the material and the spiritual blur.

This period is also significant for its broad recognition: many of Fontaine’s works from this phase entered prestigious private and public collections, such as Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Canada. Her ability to turn a traditionally decorative material into a vehicle for deeper meaning solidified her reputation and positioned these works as essential pieces within major collections around the world.

Fontaine’s glitter paintings from this era challenge conventional ideas of beauty, value, and materiality, and continue to resonate with collectors and institutions globally.