Ice Follies 2025

Andrew Ackerman and Nipissing University Fine Arts Students Ross Kozuskanich and Ellie Laberge, Fire and Flood, 2025

This year’s Ice Follies theme, Ozhaashikwaa (The Ice is Slippery), evokes thoughts of instability, vulnerability, and uncertainty about how to proceed or traverse the path ahead. In a time of unprecedented climatic change, a rapidly warming climate, and unpredictable weather patterns, extreme natural disasters have become the norm. How are we meant to navigate these challenges? How do we situate ourselves within this changing landscape?

Fire and Flood is a sculptural installation that explores our complicated and increasingly tenuous relationship with the natural world. From afar, the work presents itself as a dark and slightly elongated house-like structure. In daylight, its stark form and colour contrasts with the whiteness of its surroundings. As dusk approaches, the structure slowly blends with the environment and light begins to emanate from within the work, like a lantern, casting bluish rays through irregularly shaped perforations in the wooden exterior. These voids define the contours of intricately cut silhouettes of foliage – of trees, shrubs, and grasses – forms that echo the natural environment. Nature is presented as a habitable space, a dwelling, home, and place of refuge. Yet its blackened surface seems at odds with this interpretation. It is a compromised shelter, scared and battered, as if ravaged by fire. Peering through this wooden veil reveals a solitary figure partially submerged in water. Their eyes closed, face expressionless, and immersed in their own interiority. The figure is seemingly unaware of their predicament… except, perhaps, for a subtle gesture – a momentary but perceptible sensory experience.

Artist Bio:

Andrew Ackerman’s practice is situated in sculpture and site-specific installation. Much of his work is figurative and explores aspects of the human condition and the corporeal body. Andrew also maintains a collaborative and interdisciplinary installation practice that engages with spatial, sensory, and embodied experiences. He employs a variety of material-based approaches, ranging from modelling and casting to wood and metal fabrication.

Andrew has exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as the Alberta Craft Council (Edmonton, AB), the Santa Paula Museum of Fine Art (Santa Paula, CA), and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (Gimpo-Si, Gyeonnggi, South Korea). Recent collaborative installations include Keeping Time at Martha Street Studio (Winnipeg, MB), as well as Embodied Terrains and im•pulse, two site-specific works completed for the Ice Follies Biennial Festival of Contemporary and Community-Engaged Art (Shabogesic Beach, North Bay, ON).

Andrew is an Associate Professor in the Fine Arts/Visual Arts program at Nipissing University where he teaches courses in sculpture, interdisciplinary studio practice, drawing, and anatomy. He holds a BFA from York University and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art.

Nipissing University Students: Ross Kozuskanich and Ellie Laberge
Ross Kozuskanich and Ellie Laberge are both in their 3rd year of study in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Nipissing University, in North Bay Ontario. They share a passion for the arts, work in a variety of mediums, and over the past month have been developing their knowledge and experience with site-specific and community-based installation.

Social Links:

Instagram: Andrew Ackerman Studio
Nipissing University Profile: Andrew Ackerman​ (Nipissing University)​