NICOLE CHOCHREK
BASED IN BUFFALO, NEW YORK
Nicole Chochrek utilizes visual and performative frameworks to explore contemporary issues and environmental disparities. Her work focuses on the accessibility and digestibility of information, deep listening, shared responsibilities, and the construction of new ways of being together. As an interdisciplinary artist, Nicole’s work transverses themes such as air quality, land use, waste, and the navigations of a neurodivergent mind. Her process examines our ideas of “correctness” and holds space for possibility.
BIOGRAPHY
Nicole Chochrek holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University at Buffalo (2022) and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography: Environmental Science from the University of North Texas (2015). As an interdisciplinary artist, she has exhibited both nationally and internationally, from Al Shaheed Park in Kuwait (2016) to El Museo Gallery in Buffalo, New York (2022).
Her work has been supported by artist residencies including Laboratory Art + Residency in Spokane, Washington (2019); the UB Arts Collaboratory Student Residency in Buffalo, New York (2020-2021); the Immersive Art & Technology Initiative at Alfred University (2022); and the Soil Factory Residency at Cornell University (2025).
Beyond her studio practice, Chochrek has presented research on air quality and the impacts of fire season at the National Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Phoenix, Arizona (2019). She collaborated with the Coalesce Center for Biological Art (2020-2022) and was awarded grants from Creatives Rebuild New York and NYSCA in partnership with CEPA Gallery (2022-2024). These grants supported the creation of Broken Plastics, an arts and education initiative that launched Microplastic Recycling Art Bins across Erie and Niagara County, New York. Research collected through this project was later presented at the New York State Microplastic Summit at the University at Buffalo (2024).
Chochrek is expanding this work beyond Western New York in collaboration with Nature Lab in Troy, New York and Rozalia Project in Burlington, Vermont (2024-2025).