Nicole Polonsky is a visual artist whose practice encompasses editioned prints, bookworks and multiples; drawing and unique object-making; writing; film, installations and performance. She also devises and produces group projects and exhibitions, and collaborates with other artists to realise cross-disciplinary ventures.
Nicole is drawn to matter that has been overlooked, erased, marginalised or considered banal. She has an enduring interest in stuff that is impermanent, experiences that are fleeting, dashed expectations, minor let-downs and lost causes. Language – especially found text – holds a particular allure.
The artist approaches process and media experimentally. She strives to achieve pieces that are succinct and free from gratuitous mark-making. In spite of their visual restraint, very human emotions and experiences – humour, regret, melancholy, nostalgia, loss and grief – are confronted explicitly, or through allusion or metaphor.
Nicole gained her BA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and MA Print at the Royal College of Art. She has shown extensively throughout her career. Recent exhibitions include lapse:re:lapse, MOCA London WE, UK (solo, 2020); The Book as Art, DeKalb County Public Library, Georgia USA (2020); A Pollock’s Gallimaufry, London UK (co-curator and participant, 2019); ACE-funded Lighting Up Time, Northern Print and Side Cinema, Newcastle UK (solo, 2019); The Contemporary Print, Flatbed Press and Gallery, Texas USA (2018); Y not I, The House of St Barnabas, London UK (solo, 2018). Nicole’s work is held in private collections internationally and public collections at Museum of Modern Art, Decatur Arts Alliance, Lafayette College (USA); MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain); University of Oxford, Ruskin School of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Manchester Metropolitan University, Essex County Council, Chelsea College of Arts Library and the Poetry Library (UK). It has been featured in a number of publications: Creative Review, Art Monthly, Printmaking Today, Independent, Guardian Weekend, Telegraph Magazine, Time Out, Esquire, Garageland and Attitude, as well as Michael Petry’s The Word is Art (Thames & Hudson). Nicole lives and works in London.
Nicole is drawn to matter that has been overlooked, erased, marginalised or considered banal. She has an enduring interest in stuff that is impermanent, experiences that are fleeting, dashed expectations, minor let-downs and lost causes. Language – especially found text – holds a particular allure.
The artist approaches process and media experimentally. She strives to achieve pieces that are succinct and free from gratuitous mark-making. In spite of their visual restraint, very human emotions and experiences – humour, regret, melancholy, nostalgia, loss and grief – are confronted explicitly, or through allusion or metaphor.
Nicole gained her BA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and MA Print at the Royal College of Art. She has shown extensively throughout her career. Recent exhibitions include lapse:re:lapse, MOCA London WE, UK (solo, 2020); The Book as Art, DeKalb County Public Library, Georgia USA (2020); A Pollock’s Gallimaufry, London UK (co-curator and participant, 2019); ACE-funded Lighting Up Time, Northern Print and Side Cinema, Newcastle UK (solo, 2019); The Contemporary Print, Flatbed Press and Gallery, Texas USA (2018); Y not I, The House of St Barnabas, London UK (solo, 2018). Nicole’s work is held in private collections internationally and public collections at Museum of Modern Art, Decatur Arts Alliance, Lafayette College (USA); MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain); University of Oxford, Ruskin School of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Manchester Metropolitan University, Essex County Council, Chelsea College of Arts Library and the Poetry Library (UK). It has been featured in a number of publications: Creative Review, Art Monthly, Printmaking Today, Independent, Guardian Weekend, Telegraph Magazine, Time Out, Esquire, Garageland and Attitude, as well as Michael Petry’s The Word is Art (Thames & Hudson). Nicole lives and works in London.