ARTIST PORTFOLIO NICOLA ROOS 0827856576 nicolaroos.studio@gmail.com www.nicolaroos.com CURRICULUM VITAE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 2016 BA Fine Arts Graduate (Sculpture Major) Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa 2015: Accepted into the Faculty of Humanities Dean ’ s List for exceptional academic performance 2016: Co-awarded the Simon Gerson Prize for producing an exceptional body of work 2016: Winner of the Michaelis Prize for achieving 95% for Studio Work 2016: Re-accepted into the Faculty of Humanities Dean ’ s List for exceptional academic performance SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2023: A Taste of Salt, Simchowitz Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 2020: Kurobozu (Dark Stranger) , Evergold Projects, San Francisco, USA. GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2025: Nature vs Nurture, Muse Gallery, Franschhoek, South Africa 2024: ComicCon Cape Town , Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa 2024: ComicCon Africa , NASREC Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa 2024: SculptX Sculpture Fair , The Melrose Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 2024: Take A Stand , The Viewing Room Gallery at St. Lorient, Johannesburg, South Africa 2023: AGOA (Africa Growth and Opportunity Act) Expo , NASREC Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa 2023: Sculpt X Sculpture Fair , The Melrose Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 2023: OpenStudios Riebeek Valley , Die Kunshuis ('The Art House') via RK Contemporary, Riebeek-Kasteel, South Africa 2022: Moon Art Fair , Westin Hotel, Hamburg, Germany 2021: Kugarisana, Christie ’ s Beverly Hills, California, USA 2021: Paradise Lost , Rossouw Modern/SPACE Curated, Hermanus, South Africa 2020: Abantu (The People) , Dyman Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2018: Defying the Narrative: Contemporary Art from Southern and West Africa, Evergold Projects, San Francisco, USA. 2018: Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Malibu Village, California, USA 2017: Recent Acquisitions , University of South Africa (UNISA) Art Gallery, UNISA Main Campus, Tshwane, South Africa 2017: Black and White , Absolut Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2017: Turbine Art Fair , Turbine Hall, Johannesburg, South Africa 2017: Michaelis Graduate Exhibition , Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 2017: Cape Town Art Fair , Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa 2016: Cape Town Art Fair , Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa 2016: On Photography, Painting and Sculpture , Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa 2015: Form and Substance , Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa COLLECTIONS Selected P rivate Collections David Altman/Stefan Simchowitz (USA) Arnold Lehman (USA) Brendan Murphy (USA) Brian Underwood (USA) Grizelda Hall (South Africa) Justin Divaris (South Africa) Marc Picard (Germany) Oscar Pintado-Barragan (Mexico) Public Collections Ubisoft Entertainment (USA/France) Eclipse Gallery (Mexico) Michaelis School of Fine Art /University of Cape Town (South Africa) Rollins Museum of Art (USA) University of South Africa (South Africa) Corporate Collections Sovereign Trust Group (South Africa) ICM Partners (USA) Foundations KT Wong Foundation (South Africa) NO MAN ’ S LAND (2015-PRESENT) Artist Statement Since discovering the medium in early 2015, I have primarily been working in life-size figurative sculptural installations constructed out of recycled rubber tyre tubing. I investigate the origins of civilization and society, as well as the ever-changing politics of national identity, collective memory and cultural belonging in the postcolonial world. The point of reference for my 2015 debut installation at the University of Cape Town ’ s Michaelis School of Fine Art, No Man ’ s Land , was the only dark-skinned Samurai ever written into recorded history: a man of African descent, known only by the name of Yasuke (pronounced yas-keh ), who was taken from his homeland and came to serve under an influential daimy ō (feudal lord) in late 16th century Japan. His legacy of cross-cultural exchange shifted the focus to a new world state of ethnographic modernity and the transient fixity of culture and tradition. My interest in colonial history and the commemoration of abstruse individuals was sparked by the little-known narrative of Yasuke and the myriad of socio- cultural implications that ripple outwards from this remarkable man in Africa and abroad. In The Risk Society and Beyond: Critical Issues for Social Theory (2000), Beck, Joost and Adam (2000:42) argue that the Western concept of high/low, grid/group distinctions, that were previously used in the analysis and classification of societies, cannot be mapped onto actually existing societies in a straightforward way any longer. Cultural change, in response to socio-economical, historical or political forces, reflects better knowledge of alternative cultures and such knowledge leads to cultural mergers : new syntheses in languages, religion, and other domains. Thus it can be said that, above all, the majority of cultures today exhibit transient fixity This is often referred to as individualism-collectivism – a new form of consciousness transforming the global cultural experience today. In The Pure Products Go Crazy , author James Clifford offers a poem by William Carlos Williams about a housekeeper “ Elsie ” This girl is of mixed blood – with a divided common ancestry – and no real collective roots to trace. In the poem, Williams observes that this is the direction that the world is moving in, as Clifford then states —“ an inevitable momentum. ” Clifford is of the subsequent belief that, “ in an inter-connected world, culture is always to varying degrees, ‘ inauthentic. ’” These so-called “ impure ” cultures have conflicted with the forces of ‘ progress ’ and ‘ national ’ unification. This has led to “ many traditions, languages, cosmologies, and values [being] lost, some literally murdered ” The argument here is that, inevitably, all cultures either will, or have experienced this, and in the end have transformed into an alternate version (or versions) of themselves. This predicament has come to be called ethnographic modernity : ethnographic because Williams (like us) finds himself unbalanced among dispersed traditions; modernity, since the state of rootlessness and continuous motion he meets has become an increasingly common fate. "Elsie" simultaneously represents an indigenous cultural cessation and a shared future. To Williams, her story is inescapably both his own and everyone's: accepting this inter-connectivity is not the same as accepting cultural decline into a nightmare of syncretic circumstances. My work suggests that this shifting state of culture and the resulting sense of alienation is so much more apparent at the dawn of what curator/author Okwui Enwezor terms post-Westernism – a possibly threatening, unstable no man ’ s land that we find ourselves in today. However, my characters – like the various articulations of Yasuke that form the basis of my exploration into this segment of the past – are no longer individuals, but rather elements of an imagined realm beyond official history. They are the embodiment of a local cultural breakdown and a communal future where beliefs, assumptions and knowledge about place and culture can be deconstructed and re-negotiated. Obsidian Samurai XVI, No Man ’ s Land , 2019 Polyurethane plastic, used inner tyre tubes, stainless steel, aluminium, wood, polyurethane foam, nails, glass, epoxy resin, cotton cloth, cotton cord, cotton rope, thermoplastic, wax pigment, faux suede, beads, replica katana. Dimensions (mm): 820L x 810W x 2120H Obsidian Samurai XVII, No Man ’ s Land , 2019 Polyurethane plastic, used inner tyre tubes, stainless steel, aluminium, wood, polyurethane foam, nails, glass, epoxy resin, cotton cloth, cotton cord, cotton rope, thermoplastic, wax pigment, faux suede, beads, replica katana. Dimensions (mm): 820L x 810W x 2120H Obsidian Samurai XXII, No Man ’ s Land, 2020 Polyurethane plastic, used inner tyre tubes, stainless steel, aluminium, wood, polyurethane foam, nails, glass, epoxy resin, cotton cloth, cotton cord, cotton rope, thermoplastic, wax pigment, faux suede, beads, replica katana. Dimensions (mm): 820L x 810W x 2042H Obsidian Samurai XXIII, No Man ’ s Land, 2020 Polyurethane plastic, used inner tyre tubes, stainless steel, aluminium, wood, polyurethane foam, nails, glass, epoxy resin, cotton cloth, cotton cord, cotton rope, thermoplastic, wax pigment, faux suede, beads, replica katana. Dimensions (mm): 820L x 810W x 2060H Below are installation shots of works from the No Man ’ s Land series at various locations in Cape Town, South Africa and at Christies, Beverly Hills, USA. ABOVE THE MEMORY OF HEROES (2020-PRESENT)