Nicola Green is a British artist and social historian. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to her artistic practice, Green works at the intersection of contemporary visual storytelling and traditional portraiture. Green is celebrated for having a unique perspective that offers profound insights into the dynamics of representation and legacy, and how visual language can spark change. Assuming the role of witness to momentous global events, she creates artworks that preserve and reflect our shared heritage, exploring how art can connect us to the past to illuminate history, capture pivotal moments in the present, and inspire transformative visions for the future.

Green gained global recognition for her body of work and archive, In Seven Days... the result of her unprecedented artistic access to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. With a front row seat to the historic events on Obama’s campaign trail, Green created a complex visual legacy of this moment, hailed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art as “an artistic and historic masterpiece.” 

Encounters is a decades-long body of work and archive created by Green in collaboration with global religious leaders. Encounters includes a series of artworks each with a bespoke patterned background bejewelled with the history, faith, and culture that they represent. Subjects include Pope Francis, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Encounters has been described as the first and only artwork in the history of global art to portray all the world’s major religions together and without hierarchy. 

Green is dedicated to social impact and has worked tirelessly towards creating positive change in the artworld and beyond. She co-founded and directed the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. In 2019, Green founded the Khadija Saye Arts programme at IntoUniversity, UK. In 2022, Green was a Principal Artist for The World Reimagined, UK. As Co-Founder and Chair of Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre Guyana, Green has championed the preservation and exploration of the Guiana Shield, the world’s largest remaining pristine rainforest. 

Green’s work can be found widely in public collections around the world, including: Art in Embassies Collection, US Department of State; Courtauld Institute of Art, London; Edinburgh College of Art, UK; The Faith Museum, Bishop Auckland, UK; Library of Congress, Washington DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; UK Government Art Collection, London; Obama Presidential Center, Chicago; and Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery—Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. 

  • Description text goes here2025 HENI Gallery, London 

    2023 I Am Because We Are, Rhodes House, Oxford, UK

    2021 Zuleika Gallery, Woodstock, UK

    2019 Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK 

    2018 St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London 

    2017 Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, UK

    2016 Flowers Gallery, London 

    2015 Jealous Gallery, London 

    2014 Jewish Museum, London 

    2013 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, Australia House, London Flowers Gallery, London

    2012 Cultural Olympiad, Olympic Park, London 

    2011 Library of Congress, Washington DC* 

    2010 Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Bruce Castle Museum, London

    2007 Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 

    2005 Vinyl Factory, London 

    2003 Vinyl Factory, London 

    1999 Cork Street Gallery, London 

    1998 Pump House Gallery, London 

  • The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

    The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

    International Slavery Museum, Liverpool

    Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

    The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

    Glenhurst Gallery of Brant, Canada

    Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh

    Sir John Soane’s Museum, London

    Jewish Museum, London

    Paintings in Hospitals, UK

    Bruce Castle Museum, London

    Royal National College for the Blind, Hereford

    Edinburgh College of Art

    Anti-Slavery International, London

    BBC Radio 4 Sound Archive, London

  • 2023 Filling In The Pieces In Black: Saatchi Gallery, London; Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels

    2023 Only Through Others, Faith Museum, Bishop Auckland 

    2022 Zuleika Gallery, Winter Show, London

    2022 The World Reimagined, Trafalgar Square, London

    2022 The World Reimagined, Westminster Abbey, London

    2022 History of Medicine, Advent Life Science, London 

    2021 Light Seasonal Windows, Bruce Castle Museum, London 

    2020 Summer/Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London

    2020 Isolated Observations, Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, UK 

    2018 Grayson Perry’s Room of Fun, Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London

    2018 London Art Fair, Islington Design Centre, London

    2017 Diaspora Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, Italy

    2017 Good Nature, Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, UK 

    2016 ICON, Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, UK

    2015 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London

    2015 Good Figures (touring): Mall Galleries, London; The Downland Jerwood Gridshell Museum, Chichester, UK 

    2014 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, New York

    2014 The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London

    2014 Local Reflections: Nelson Mandela and the Haringey Anti-Apartheid Movement, Bruce Castle Museum, London 

    2013 London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London

    2013 Art, Election and History, Flowers Gallery, London

    2013 Recent Prints, Flowers Gallery, London

    2013 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London

    2013 Multiplied, Christie’s, London

    2013 Pulse Contemporary Art Fair, New York

    2013 London Print Fair, Royal Academy of Arts, London 

    2012 BlindArt, Moorfields Eye Hospital

    2012 London Cultural Olympiad, Haringey, London 

    2011 BlindArt, Banbury Museum, UK

    2011 Inspired by Soane, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London 

    2010 Touching Art, Touching You, Hove Museum & Art Gallery,

    2010 UK East Wing Collection, The Courtauld Institute, London 

    2009 Royal College for the Blind, Hereford, UK 

    2008 BlindArt, Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth, UK

    2008 BP Portrait Award (touring): National Portrait Gallery, London; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum, UK; Aberystwyth Arts Centre, UK

    2008 A Sense of Space: The Blind Culture (touring): McIntosh Gallery, Western University, Ontario, Canada; Glenhurst Gallery of Brant, Canada Touching Art,

    2008 Touching You, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, UK On Time, The Courtauld Institute, London 

    2007 Permanent Collection, Ontario Glenhurst Gallery of Brant, Canada

    2007 Boundless Menier, Chocolate Gallery and Southwark Council, London 

    2006 BP Portrait Award (touring): National Portrait Gallery, London; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum; Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK

    2006 BlindArt USA (touring): National Public Library for the Blind, New York; British Embassy, Washington DC

    2006 Shoes – The Agony & Ecstasy (touring): Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, UK; Norwich Castle Museum, UK; Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, UK; Tully House Museum, Carlisle, UK 

    2005 Portraits 2005, Arndean Gallery, London

    2005 BlindArt, Royal College of Art, London 

    2004 New Sound, New York, The Kitchen Venue, New York

    2004 Winchester Festival of Art & the Mind, Winchester, UK

    2004 Retrospective, 291 Gallery, London 

    2003 A Laughing Portrait (touring): Cork Arts Festival, Ireland; Port Eliot Literary Festival Cornwall, UK; Royal Brompton Hospital, London; Your Shout Awards Winchester, UK