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.