Artists
Nicomi + Mark
Nicomi Turner, aka The Embalmer, grew up on 35 acres of cows and rabbits in Southern Oregon. Growing up 15 miles away from any companionship left Nicomi to play tag with the electrical fence and jump rope with the barbed wire. At thirteen, she built a makeshift studio in her closet and made really crap concert flyers and bear-people drawings. Nicomi moved to Oakland, CA and has been freelancing ever since, and also apprenticed at a tattoo shop. She attended California College of Arts, with a focus on printmaking and illustration. This year, Nicomi will open EMBALMER ILL, an online business heading skate decks, shirts, prints and panties. Her philosophy? What more could you need in life?
Mark Baugh-Sasaki is a sculptor who was raised in San Francisco, CA. Working primarily in metal, wood, and concrete, his artwork deals with the exploration of the relationship that humans have with the natural landscape and how our unnatural environments interact with the natural environment. An Eagle Scout of San Francisco’s Troop 58, Mark has exhibited with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Frame Gallery, Ellis Gallery and Technical Arts Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA and has exhibited in San Francisco with Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture Festival, The Atrium Gallery (San Francisco, CA), and North Beach Gallery.
On their pairing:
We let our mischievous sides come out for this one. Mark is the tall, soft-spoken, serious type. He deals in themes of man and nature, destruction and rebirth, molten metal and huge, roughly sculpted pieces of wood. He owns chainsaws, grinders, drills, and melts metal on the beach. He’s also the sort of sweet, really nice guy that you meet and instantly think was once a boy scout. We checked, and it’s actually right there on his resume – Eagle Scout, Troop 58, San Francisco. Nicomi’s nickname is “The Embalmer”. In fact, that’s what it says on her e-mail – not Nicomi, but “The Embalmer.” She’s a firebrand who grew up playing tag with barbed wire fences for lack of childhood pals, and moved to Oakland on her own. She loves designing skateboards, and her theme for Fling is “Shakedown”, which either comprises break dancing or a drug bust, or both. Loud and quiet, serious and insane, Mark and Nicomi have the makings of… something… possibly explosive, possibly ticklish. We’re as curious as you to find out on March 11th.