NICOLA BAILEY

BIOGRAPHY

(b.1965 Durban, South Africa)

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.

A multi-media interdisciplinary artist, Bailey began her art tuition in 1997 at Ruth Prowse Art College in Cape Town South Africa. Since 2008 she has been part of an art collective founded by artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky, collectively known as Rosenclaire 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. Recently in November 2023 the solo A Gentle Entanglement opened at Everard Read Gallery Cape Town.

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 Twee Jonge Gezellen Farm in Tulbagh, South Africa. In June 2024 Bailey shows for the first time in New York City, in a group exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery entitled Sublime Spirit.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

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.
BRAINLAB Vilsmeier/ Linhares Collection Munich, Germany.
White Rabbit Collection, Sydney, Australia.

EDUCATION