About
Nina studied her BA in Painting at the University of Brighton and MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London where she received the Stanley Smith Scholarship. She now paints in her studio in Brighton on the South coast of England. She swims in the sea most days and records light in the sea, under the surface of the waves and the shoreline. Having exhibited nationally and internationally, highlights include ‘London Art’ fair, Scope in Miami and at Paradise RCA in Milan. She has paintings in both public and private collections in London and Brighton notably 6KB and Alex de Brye amongst others. Last year Nina took part in two two-month research residencies at Phoenix Art Space in Brighton ending in an exhibition in the gallery; a two person show at The Fishing Quarter Gallery Brighton; exhibited in group shows in London and Brighton and painted a mural in an arts festival in Andalucía Spain. While there she researched and explored the sea by snorkelling Malaga’s coastline to experience the corals, sea life and water quality.
She is an abstract painter experimenting with a range of paints and mixed media, techniques and surfaces creating internal and universal scapes. 'I am in wonder of the connection of the repeated symmetry of forms found in nature, from the universe to our own anatomy physiology'. Her paintings highlight humanities disruptive impact on nature and altered states in our bodies through chemical imbalance. Her paintings contemplates the middle ground between what is real and what is not, pushing the view of the objects she paints to the point where they lose their identity, thus revealing an altered more honest and therefor emotive view, that could be looking to the depths of the ocean, into the universe or travelling deep inside the body.
While studying her MA in Painting Nina explored different media including experimental moving paintings with film footage of human plastic detritus and playing with light and reflection. Through the process of filming and editing they became abstract leaving a sense of them and what impact they have on nature. This changed her painting practice forever. Looking closely at the light, medium and act of painting itself, often realized in video/sensory installations and exhibiting live painting experiments. A dreamy investigation of what it is to be human and our impact on the world. Nina is heavily influenced by her formative years of the dark deep poetic 'goth' music and then house music. Being a child of the advent of the house scene she embraced the intense emotional feeling of euphoria the music and daglow nightlife culture around it made her feel, "It's as if my whole body was filled & pulsating with the music". It was at this time she was realising that there were more ways and plains in which we exist in. Nina went on to travel in South America by road from Ecuador through Bolivia, Chile, Argentine, Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela in eight months then on to Australia driving around the country in a four wheel drive Toyota 4 Runner in eleven months camping beneath the stars, hiking mountains and swimming in the seas. The experience changed her life for experiencing the beauty of nature on this magnitude was awe inspiring and an emotionally overwhelming experience. This is when she first experienced of our impact on the planet first hand from seeing devastation of trees and wildlife in the rainforests of Peru to tower block size shards of glacier falling into the sea in Monero national park in Argentina to coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Education
2010-12 Royal College of Art, MA Fine Art Painting
2005-07 University of Brighton, BA Hons Fine Art Painting
2003-05 City College Brighton & Hove, HND Fine Art
Awards & prizes
2010 -2012 Stanley Smith Scholarship to the Royal College of Art, MA in Painting
2010 Salon Art Prize 2010, Matt Roberts, Bethnal Green
2015 Threadneedle Art Prize, Mall Galleries, London
Residencies
2023 Sept Art Tolox Arts Festival, Andalusia, Spain
2023 May & June Studio Residency & Phoenix Open Studios, Phoenix Studios, Brighton
2023 Jan & Feb Phoenix Main Gallery Studio Residency & exhibition, Brighton
TV
2018 George Clarks Old House New Home, Channel 4
2010 HOTEL, Artist Residence, The Hotel Inspector’, Brighton - filmed group show
Exhibitions - solo, art fairs, 2 person & group
2023 InnSaei, Solo Show, Trafalgar House, Brighton
2023. Southwark ParkGalleries Salon show, Bermondsey, London
2023 Press + Play, Festival of Print, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton
2023 Whoopsadaisy Art Auction, Soho House, Brighton
2023 Immersion: colour - abstraction - contemplation, 2 person show, Fishing Quarter Gallery, Brighton
2023 WRAP Open House, May Festival, Brighton
2023 Flamingo House, Hove
2023 Overtone, group show at WRAP, Brighton
2022 Print Release party & show Robertson Yard
2022 Embrace, 2 person show, Fishing Quarter Gallery, Brighton
2022 7 , Ruminators Arts Collective, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton
2022 Open studios, May Festival, Robertson Yard, Brighton
2022 Flamingo House, Hove
2021 Solo show, Rever Gallery, Brighton
2021 Boom at Dynamite Gallery, Ruminators Arts Collective group show, Brighton
2020 Phoenix Windows Exhibition. Brighton
2019 Haiku, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton
2019 Old RAF Base Exhibition Space, Kings Hill
2018 APEC Open Studios, Hove
2018 Flamingo House, May Festival, Hove
2017 Flamingo House, Hove
2017 Shortlisted Royal Academy Summer Show, London
2016 Hinter Revisited Presents, Hinter Space, Brighton
2016 Paintywainty Show, The Last Refuge, Peckham
2015 Pushing Paint, Mauger Modern Art, London
2014 20 Painters, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
2013 Rusty Pipe Painted Brick, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
2013 Hinter Hinter Presents, Hinter Space, Brighton
2012 Final Light, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
2012 Peckham Arts Olympiad, The Last Refuge, Peckham
2012 SHOW 2012, Royal College of Art, Battersea
2012 Paradise, RCA Milan,Fine Art Meets Design, group show Milan
2011 Elizabeth House Project, Elizabeth House, Waterloo
2011 Fine Art W.I.P Show 2011, Royal College of Art, South Kensington
2010 Desire is a Golden Carrot, The Albion, Battersea
2009 There's Still Life, A show by Mauger Modern Art, Art London Art Fair, Royal Chelsea & Scope Miami Art Fair
2009 APEC Open’09, Brighton Fringe Festival
2009 Toovey's Contemporary Art Auction & exhibition, Worthing & Horsham Museum
2008 'Around Photography’, Brighton Photo Biennial Fringe, Hove
2008 APEC Open’08, Brighton Fringe Festival
2008 Group show, Hicks Gallery, Wimbledon
2007 Skin Deep, Liverpool Biennial, City of Culture, Liverpool, curated and exhibited in this group show
2007 New Contemporaries - National Graduate Competition, Stroud House Gallery
2007 The Burt Brills & Cardens’ Graduate Show, University of Brighton
2006 Group show at Gallery 100, Brighton
2006 Group Show at John Packer Associates, Uckfield
2006 You May Experience Paint, University of Brighton
2006 Group show at Gallery 100, Brighton
2005 ‘Whats Goin On?’, group show at The Kettle Gallery, Hove