VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Anatomy fascinates Nickolai Walko. Had he followed in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, no one would have been surprised. Instead, the 24-year-old forged his own path by pursuing sculpture, graduating from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in December.

But, as VCU has proven time and again, medicine and art overlap in a number of ways. It’s fitting, then, that Walko’s first solo exhibition at his alma mater takes place at the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences on the VCU Health MCV Campus. “Unmasked: A Visual Dissection” runs from Oct. 22 through Jan. 31.

When all the tape’s applied over the wood, it’s like this tape is the skin and my X-acto blade is my scalpel. 

The title comes from the unusual medium Walko favors and his technique in revealing what lies beneath it. Each of the approximately 30 pieces in the show is made from masking tape. Walko has been working with masking tape since high school, when he took an art class at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk.

“I kind of continued to work with this medium that really fascinated me, that was so different from painting or drawing or traditional material,” Walko said. “That’s why this show is unique. It’s all made out of masking tape. And the whole approach is so different from painting or drawing, because with painting or drawing, you’re adding to the surface, whereas with this, it’s already there, but you’re taking away almost like carving out a marble sculpture.”

Most of his works start out as wooden panels that he paints before meticulously applying the tape. He then draws on the panel — anything from an anatomical diagram to Jimi Hendrix — and carefully cuts away to reveal the image beneath.

Walko doesn’t know of anyone else who uses masking tape in this way, and he’s trying to figure out ways to advance his technique. He recently took a steel torso that he forged over an anvil and covered with tape. The resulting three-dimensional diagram, “The Torso,” is featured in “Unmasked.”

And, while he didn’t pursue medicine, Walko sees many similarities between his work and the art that doctors create each day.

“The way that I look at masking tape is when I’m putting down these strips of tape on this panel of wood, I almost look at it as the skin,” he said. “So when all the tape’s applied over the wood, it’s like this tape is the skin and my X-acto blade is my scalpel. So taking this ‘scapel’ X-acto blade, I cut into the skin. Then pulling up the tape is revealing this high-contrast image and it totally reminds me of a medical procedure, like a surgical procedure.”

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives reading room at Tompkins-McCaw Library. Refreshments will be served. The reception, like the event, is free and open to all. For more information, visit http://www.library.vcu.edu/about/news/2015/vcu-alumnus-presents-anatomical-pop-art-in-new-tompkins-mccaw-gallery-show.html. 

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