Other worldly life exists among us but often goes unnoticed due to its microscopic scale, ephemeral life cycles, or how it hides within its environment. Inspired by the magical world of slugs, species and spectacular creatures of the natural world including plants, bacteria and parasitic fungi, the work of Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly will bring outdoor spaces and structures to life in fun, nostalgic and innovative ways.
Artists Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly return to BIFA this year to activate the Arts District Campus with a special presentation of some of their most iconic otherworldly inflatable sculptures. These sprawling sculptures will appear and disappear across the campus with a variety of pop-up performances and roaming creatures. The artists will also create a completely new series of alien plants inspired by imagined future adaptations. These new sculptures will be completely constructed from reclaimed tents during their summer residency at Breck Create.
Nicole Banowetz is a Colorado sculptor who makes sewn inflatable sculptures. Nicole’s work is inspired by the natural world. She addresses human qualities and relationships using the imagery she finds in the animal, plant, mineral and bacterial worlds. She has made installations inspired by bacteria, parasitic fungus, viruses, radiolaria, rotifers, rhinos, etc… All these forms are recreated as soft inflatable sculptures, which she designs and sews on her sewing machine.
According to Banowetz “Inflatables have power. They draw an audience in by promising the familiarity of childhood, a jumping castle, and the wacky waving man. The inflatable is familiar, soft and comforting which gives viewers the security they need to enter a space, immerse themselves and become curious. With curiosity comes a questioning state of mind.” Nicole’s work creates a unique combination of the familiar and the strange which allows viewers to question the world around them.
Devin Reilly is a sun-eating creature who fabricates and engineers elaborate monsters to hang out with Nicole’s sculptures. He is inspired by adorable tiny maggot faces and the long noses of banana bats. Somehow everything he makes is overly tedious. He is most interested in transforming art into particularly strange occurrences. Together Devin and Nicole have been traveling the country creating wearable inflatable sculptures which they use in performances or photograph in remote or surreal environments.
Life of a Slime Mold • Riverwalk Center, roof
Permutate • Old Masonic Hall
Detail of a Microcosm • Riverwalk Center Lawn
The Earth Star or Concerning Plants • Riverwalk Center Lawn
Future Plant Life • Hot Shop Patio
Alien Plant • Robert Whyte House
Aug 20 • 8:50-9:10pm • Riverwalk Center Lawn
On the Edge of the Cosmic Sea is a series of roaming inflatable sea creatures that come to life as glowing wearable sculptures. Inspired by tide pool ecosystems and deep-sea organisms, the performance includes larger-than-life puppets such as the Parchment Worm, the Copepod, and the Sea Slug.
Aug 21 • 5:00-5:30pm • Blue River Island
Be surprised while observing the strange natural behavior of the Sea Cucumber in this performance reminiscent of a surreal nature documentary.
Aug 22 • 10am, 1:30pm, 4:00pm, 6:30pm • Hot Shop Patio
Strange plants require unusual pollinators. Visit the alien garden and wait to see what sort of creature may appear to pollinate these future plants.
Aug 23 • 11:30am • Riverwalk Center Lawn
Pop up activation as The Earth Star emerges for the final day of the festival. Join artist Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly for a pop-up activation followed by an artist talk as we walk through campus.
Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly collaborate on performative sculptures. They find fascinating and beautiful organisms in the natural world to recreate into wearable and inflatable sculptures which they photograph out in the environment or use in surreal performances. They began collaborating in 2017 when founding the activist artist group BAAM. In 2022 they put all their belongings into storage to become a nomadic art making duo. They created a giant floating art installation for the Bosch parade in the Netherlands in 2024, and they completed numerous residences together including Sculpture Space in New York, The Aquarium Gallery in New Orleans, Lakeside Lab in Iowa, Lookout Arts Quarry in Washington, and the Grand Canyon Artist in Residence Program.
Banowetz is from Colorado where she studied art and found a passion for sewing large inflatable sculptures. She has shown work in large international exhibitions such as The Amsterdam Light Festival, Bad Art’s Hot Air in London, Open Art in Sweden, and PASSAGES INSOLITES in Quebec City. She has also taken part in environmental exhibitions in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Finland. Her largest gallery installations were shown in the Denver Art Museum, the Longmont Museum, and Wonderspaces.
Reilly was born in Kansas but moved to Colorado where he met Nicole and their love of microscopic creatures brought them together. Reilly originally studied illustration but found that he preferred sculpture, and began to focus on wearable sculpture pieces. He worked for many years as a commercial sculptor gaining skills in a variety of materials and processes.