# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo
- **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 02 Oct, 2026 at 06:00 pm – Fri, 02 Oct, 2026 at 10:00 pm (-04:00)
- **Event Description**: October 2, 2026 - February 14, 2027
Tube Gallery 

What if the secrets of the universe were hiding in plain sight — in a bean, a spiral, a labyrinth drawn in sand? For 25 years, Ben Nicholson filled a single sketchbook with hand-drawn investigations into that question, tracing the geometry hidden inside Pythagorean mathematics, medieval labyrinths, Islamic calligraphy, the Hebrew alphabet, and Dante's Divine Comedy, page by careful page, in pencil, by hand.

The exhibit brings together two bodies of work together for the public to experience for the first time. At the center of the gallery, Nicholson's wooden Kufic labyrinth cubes — hand-built geometric forms that are themselves labyrinthine objects — hold the sketchbook pages alongside artifacts he associates with specific drawings: physical things that anchor ideas to the world. Select pages are enlarged on the south wall for full immersion in the work's density and detail. Surrounding you on the east, west, and north walls are 200 of Nicholson's hand-drawn labyrinth variations — a taxonomy of one of architecture's most ancient and persistent forms.

Inside Ben Nicholson"Ex Materia Ex Nihilo," somewhere between a fava bean and the name of God, number becomes meaning. 

About the Artist
Ben Nicholson is an architectural designer, artist, and writer whose practice moves fluidly between drawing, scholarship, and making. Educated at the Architectural Association in London, the Cooper Union in New York, and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, he taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology for sixteen years before joining the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was professor until his retirement in 2021. He has served as guest faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the universities of Edinburgh, London, Michigan, Houston, and Cornell.

Nicholson's work ranges across visionary architecture, warfare, vernacular culture, primitive geometry, and the deep history of labyrinths. His publications include: Appliance House (MIT Press, 1990), Thinking the Unthinkable House (Renaissance Society, 1997), Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony (University of Minnesota Press, 2019), and Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier & Artemas Wheeler (Headstamp 2022). He has exhibited at Fondation Cartier, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Renaissance Society, and the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Nicholson lives and works in New Harmony, Indiana — one of America's oldest utopian communities — where he has spent the past 20 years writing and drawing while completing Ex Materia, a hand-drawn sketchbook investigation into the geometry and number underlying the great texts, cosmologies, and sacred architectures of Mediterranean civilization.

Image: Ben Nicholson, "Stagger Meander," page 36, pencil on paper, 2023.

Made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/indianapolis/ben-nicholson-ex-materia-ex-nihilo/200030503700851
- **Event Categories**: Art, fine-arts, literary-art, comedy
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 41

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Indianapolis
- **state**: IN
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 1125 Cruft St, Indianapolis, IN, United States, Indiana 46203
- **lat**: 39.72914
- **long**: -86.13866
- **full address**: 1125 Cruft St, Indianapolis, IN, United States, Indiana 46203

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events9/banners/5a86bbba5b63e56bc7dd000e55051b3cdec9c7823d7fc93c2d4e257454abd922-rimg-w1200-h1517-dce8e8e8-gmir?v=1787202892

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo being held?
  - **A:** Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo takes place on Fri, 02 Oct, 2026 at 06:00 pm to Fri, 02 Oct, 2026 at 10:00 pm at 1125 Cruft St, Indianapolis, IN, United States, Indiana 46203.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo?
  - **A:** Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo is organized by Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis -CAMi.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo is ideal for art lovers, trade professionals, collectors, and exhibition enthusiasts exploring the latest in their field. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Indianapolis, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If Ben Nicholson: Ex Materia Ex Nihilo sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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