Nicola Bouwer smiling, seated at her art studio workspace with sketches and paint swatches on the wall behind he

About

Nicola is a Johannesburg-based South African artist working across oil painting and collage. Her practice is rooted in quiet observation and emotional storytelling, drawing on themes of memory, stillness, nature, and the spaces in between.

Nicola’s creative journey is shaped by instinct and her formal studies in social sciences. She believes creativity is not something you learn, it is how you move through the world.

She began her career in the corporate world before gradually shifting focus to a dedicated art practice, returning to a long-standing interest in making art.

Her process is guided by a sensitivity to mood and form — often drawn to simple, evocative elements like a lone chair, the flicker of a shadow, or the way light touches a surface. With influences ranging from Japanese aesthetics to photography, graphic design, architecture, and flowers, her work is an introspective and playful mix of mediums and meaning.

Artist Statement

My work explores moments of stillness, emotional honesty, and the quiet spaces between presence and memory. Rooted in introspection, it often draws from nature, family relationships, and the unseen layers of life’s experiences, exploring what lies beneath the surface.

I work with both oil painting and collage, alternating between them as each offers different ways of thinking and making.

My oil paintings are made using a rub-out technique, revealing forms through erasure and light. These works lean into atmospheric, ghostly impressions, soft tonal shifts, and a dreamlike quality that speaks to transience and emotional resonance.

Collage allows me to engage with found imagery and photography, weaving together fragments into visually layered narratives. Themes of identity, transformation, playfulness, and quiet tension recur. Across both mediums, I look to create space—for ambiguity, emotional resonance, and connection.

Art is my way of thinking, processing, and finding meaning. I hope it offers others a moment to pause, to feel, and to see something of themselves within the quiet.

Selected Exhibitions

2025   

March: ​​August House Salon Vanguard, Group Exhibition, JHB 

2024   

November: ‘Reclaimed’ Collage, Group Exhibition, CT

May: ​​​Kalk Bay Modern, CT: Art on PaperXV

2023    

July: ​​​Redhill School Art’s Festival, Group Exhibition, JHB

2022    

May: ​Turbine Art Fair @ Design JHB, Sandton Convention Centre, Turbine Art Fair @ Open Studio’s, Victoria Yards, JHB

July: ​​​Turbine Art Fair Underground @ Oxford Parks, JHB

September: ​​Bag Factory Summer Salon Group Exhibition, JHB

October: ​​August House Open Studio’s, Group Exhibition, JHB

2021    

November: ​​Yards of Art Group Exhibition, Victoria Yards, JHB

September:​​ JHB Fringe Group Exhibition, The Art Room, Parkhurst

2020​    

November:​​ Online exhibition for The Fine Arts Workshop

2019​​     

November: ​Bag Factory Summer Salon Group Exhibition, JHB

November:​​ Fine Art Print Fair Pop Up Exhibition, JHB

May: ​Bag Factory Winter Salon Group Exhibition, JHB

Crumpled paint tubes, including one from Georgia, on a wooden surface with a white potted plant in the background.