Nicola Bouwer, Room for Negotiation, oil on board, 2025

Dimesnsion: 42x29.5cm

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

Guided by instinct and informed by her formal studies in the social sciences, Bouwer believes creativity is not learned but lived—an approach shaped by her transition from a corporate career to a dedicated art practice. This return to her long-standing passion for making art is marked by a sensitivity to mood, form, and atmosphere.

Often inspired by simple yet evocative details—a solitary chair, the fleeting flicker of a shadow, or the way light grazes a surface—Bouwer draws influence from Japanese aesthetics, photography, graphic design, architecture, and the natural world.

Room for Negotiation reflects this sensibility, combining restraint and nuance in a composition that invites the viewer into a quiet conversation between presence and possibility.