This important art installation by self-taught artist Kim O’Brien is her first exhibition since we presented ENTANGLED in 2024. ENTANGLED was based on her own personal experience as a patient in the BC mental health system here in Vancouver and was primarily depicted through life-size sculptures that were felted, stitched, knitted, and sewn.

NICE has been in the making since May 2024.

This is what Kim has to say about the exhibition:

“Although not obviously connected, the catalyst for NICE was a psychiatric misdiagnosis. After my hospital discharge, I was told an antidote about my time in involuntary ‘care.’ Staff told my sister what a ‘nice’ woman I was — ‘your sister is a pleasure to have on the ward.’ That antidote lived in my body as discomfort.

As I learned how to navigate the effects of psychiatric trauma, I continued to bump into my compliance and seemingly agreeable nature while struggling with feelings of personal betrayal. In an effort to understand my impulse of niceness, I began exploring how nice sits in my body. Could I untangle myself from a trait that, until recently, I had perceived as positive? Did I want to?

Despite my reluctance, my inability to forgive myself indicated that I had to, and so began my exploration of nice. This became a deep dive into childhood trauma done in therapy, and an exploration of nice as both a personal and societal pressure within my art practice. What emerged is a series of observations and confessions so deeply personal that I distanced myself by using THE WOMAN to examine my interior. NICE is ultimately a personal journey of understanding and forgiveness.”