Nicole Killian

Associate Professor

Department of Graphic Design

Contact Info

Nicole Killian is an associate professor of Graphic Design. Their work uses graphic design, publishing, video, objects and installation to investigate how the structures of the internet, mobile messaging, and shared online platforms affect contemporary interaction and shape cultural identity from a queer perspective. They are interested in the repetition, looping, and dissemination of content. They think about catnip and bird toys, scratching and the depths (or voids) of the desktop folder. Killian has exhibited at Sediment in Richmond, CAVE in Detroit, Arcadia Missa in London, Present Works in Milwaukee, Little Berlin in Philadelphia, Embassy in Los Angeles, Sadie Halie Projects in Brooklyn, Nomade Gallery in Hangzhou, and Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Artat the Whitney Museum of American Art for Lorna Mills’ Ways of Something. Their writing has been published by WOW HUH, The Enemy, Carets + Sticks (now Contemporary Art Review LA), The Journal of Feminist Scholarship, The Theo Westenberger Foundation, and in the third edition of Terry Barrett’s Criticizing Art. A current essay, “The Emotional Potential of Girls Presented on the Internet as Object” will be included by Exempt Works (formerly Penny-ante Editions) in Modern Behaviours. They have spoken at the Rhode Island School of Design, CalArts, Central Saint Martins, Royal College of Art in London, Pratt Institute, Yale School of Art, Kunsthall Stavanger, Maryland Institute College of Art and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. They previously were a visiting artist at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 2011–13. Killian appreciates a good karaoke performance and is co-creator of annual publication ISSUES with Sarah Faith Gottesdiener. Their publishing initiative, nico fontana, is concerned with a queering of language, objects, bodies and spaces. They recently served as guest editor for the Walker Art Center’s Soundboard and organized “How Will We Queer Design Education without Compromise?” Killian earned an MFA in 2D design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Diplom Hochschule Anhalt in graphic design from the University of Applied Sciences/Bauhaus Universität, and BFA in graphic design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.