BIO
Nicholas Robles (b. 1997, Cincinnati, OH) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working at the intersection of material research and cultural inquiry, Robles explores how objects carry memory, identity, and historical weight. He holds a BA in Art Practice and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. His work has been exhibited in San Francisco, Oakland, and Stanford.
STATEMENT
I use sculpture to examine how vessels—both literal and metaphorical—hold the histories we inherit. My practice weaves together ceramics, metalwork, found materials, and digital fabrication to surface stories of resilience, violence, and transformation. Drawing from research on the Colombian Exchange and its enduring impacts, I explore how materials once tied to trade, conquest, or survival continue to shape personal and collective identity. Each object I create is a site of convergence: between tradition and technology, body and container, past and present. I am particularly interested in the dual role of vessels as both protective and vulnerable—carriers of nourishment or weapons, memory or erasure. By blending mechanical precision with handcraft, I aim to reframe everyday materials as carriers of complex cultural legacies.