Nikki Ekström

Two years after graduating with a degree in studio art, Nikki Ekström ’24 spent three weeks in Kavala, Greece, creating sculptures and paintings inspired by the coastal city’s beaches, courtesy of the Eutopia Art Residency.

“It was a soul fellowship: Produce what you need for your soul, and at the end, you can show what you want to,” she says. “I went to the beach every day, worked on art, and at the end, four or five of us had work in an exhibition downtown. It was amazing.”

The residency was one in a series of professional strides for Ekström, who was part of a recent show in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, “Working Coast - Below the Line,” and has been awarded grants to create public art in Reading and Maine.

She credits the art faculty at UMass Lowell, a supportive group of fellow alumni and the Contemporary Climate Gallery, a nonprofit that promotes emerging artists whose work connects to the natural world.

“A lot of my work has to do with healing through nature, through the ocean, and spiritual experiences I have with nature, and bringing those forms to life,” Ekström says. “Most of my paintings and sculptures are also inspired by dreams and meditation and movement. It’s a combination.”

Gallery founder James LaMarca, who works in finance, found Ekström’s work on Instagram and invited her to join an exhibit. In addition to featuring her paintings and sculptures in pop-up shows, LaMarca and other gallery staff are “always putting opportunities in front of me,” Ekström says, and helping her polish her applications for fellowships and grants.

“They’re pushing me to do more business things that I probably wouldn’t do on my own,” she says.

Ekström, who grew up in Wilmington and now lives in Boston, started at UMass Lowell as a psychology major at the urging of her parents, who were concerned about her future job prospects. But after taking all-online classes in fall 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she told them, “Either you let me major in art, or I’m quitting college.” Her parents relented.

Ekström, who was already a painter, says she discovered a love of sculpture in classes with Associate Professor Yuko Oda. 

“I fell in love with building with my hands and turning something from my imagination into a physical thing I could hold,” Ekström says.

Ekström gained some professional experience at UML, too, interning with painter and Associate Professor Stephen Mishol as gallery manager at the Arts Research Collaborative, which Mishol co-founded in downtown Lowell to bridge the gap between the city and university art communities.

On campus, Ekström joined the ProtoHype urban dance team and the Student Art Union, which organizes field trips to galleries, museums and artists’ studios. Ekström, who led the group as a senior, says it proved especially important for her and her fellow fine art majors during their senior studio year, when the solo work on their final shows could feel isolating.

Ten former members of the union, now fast friends and each other’s cheerleaders, still meet every couple of months for critique sessions, she says. They recently collaborated on an exhibit at Brick Island Studios in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood, where Oda and adjunct faculty member Samnang Riebe ’10 have studios.

“I feel very grateful and blessed for that,” Ekström says. “To have a group of such tenacious people is really great.”

Ekström – and her parents – need not have worried too much about her job prospects. Although Ekström still works as a teaching assistant and an art teacher in an after-school program, her art career is taking off. Her goal is to be a full-time artist. 

“It’s been a whirlwind of emotions, and everything’s hitting me at once, that things are progressing quite quickly,” Ekström says. “It feels good to be pursuing my dreams and living them.”