NICOLA BAILEY
(b.1965 Durban, South Africa)

A multi-media interdisciplinary artist, Nicola Bailey has been part of an art collective founded by artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky, collectively known as Rosenclaire since 2008, which is based in both Florence Italy and South Africa.

At first blush, Bailey’s first solo was held in 2014 at The Culture Gallery at Woodstock Exchange Cape Town, South Africa. In 2020 she presented a solo And the Animal Responded for Cubicle Series at Everard Read Gallery Cape Town. The Tenderness of Ghosts opened May 2022 at Everard Read Johannesburg. In November 2023 the solo A Gentle Entanglement opened at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town.

"My work reflects the reciprocal devotion I experience with the animals I share my life with, ideas of empathic relationships between species, as well as envisioning a more-than-human future and the acknowledging of the interconnectivity of all life forms. Currently through exploring dreams in other life forms, I want to invite the questions: where there is dreaming, there too must be a kind of consciousness, an emotional intelligence, and an awareness of self. How do these strange and beautiful oneiric journeys manifest in different life forms? It is evident in the physical body, a paw or nose twitching, but the sensory experience of the oneiric states is beautifully intangible and only knowable by the dreamer.

How artists make sense of these imperceptible spaces adds value to scientific findings, as well as the deeper philosophical debates. Scientists are starting to discover more evidence of dreaming in creatures, and this needs much more attention as it has ramifications beyond my own investigations. There is a shifting perspective on how animals are understood and treated, with the ambitions to embody a more inclusive non-hierarchical multi-species future".

(Nicola Bailey 2024)

Selected group exhibitions include Domestic Departures at the Forge in Cape Town in 2011, In Good Company at The Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town in 2013. Art/Out of the Ordinary at the Association of Visual Arts (AVA) in Cape Town. Conversations with Irma at The Irma Stern Museum in 2019. 2022 exhibitions included Seeds of the Fig is curated by RESERVOIR (in association with WHATIFTHEWORLD, on the Krone Estate in Tulbagh, South Africa. In 2024, Bailey took part in a group show Sublime Spirits at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, USA, and was presented on the Everard Read Gallery main booth at the FNB Johannesburg Art Fair.

Nicola continues to live and work in Cape Town, South Africa.

EDUCATION

1984-86 Ruth Prowse Art College, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 – ongoing Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky, collectively known as Rosenclaire
2024 – Postgraduate Diploma, Michaelis Art School University of Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024
SOLO Canis Familiaris, Michaelis Art School, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Sublime Spirits, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, USA
Johannesburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Main Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa
Latitudes Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Sculpture Garden, Johannesburg, South Africa

2023
The Other’s Warmth: Group exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
SOLO A Gentle Entanglement, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
Seeds of the Fig: Group exhibition, WHATIFTHEWORLD X RESERVOIR, Twee Jonge Gezellen Farm, Tulbagh, South Africa
Seduction: Group exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
WINTER Group exhibition, Everard Read London, UK
SOLO The Tenderness of Ghosts, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Things I Want to Remember: Group exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
SUMMER Group Exhibition, Everard Read London, UK

2021
OASIS 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
WINTER Group Exhibition, Everard Read London, UK
Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town South Africa

2020
SUMMER Group Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
SOLO And the Animal Responded, Cubicle Series, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
Conversations with Irma, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2018
Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
Mixed Metaphors, The Forge, Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
Art|Out of the Ordinary, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
SOLO At First Blush, The Culture Gallery, Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
My Mothers Garden, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
In Good Company, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
Domestic Departures, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

D Ross Collection, USA
Enthoven Collection, South Africa
G Fox Collection, UK
Holbar AG Collection, Lichtenstein
W Kentridge Collection, South Africa
R Oppenheimer Collection, South Africa
H Rupert Collection, South Africa
J Roux Collection, South Africa
Vilsmeier/ Linhares: BRAINLAB Collection Munich, Germany
White Rabbit Collection, Sydney, Australia