About
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 art world 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; Obama Presidential Center, Chicago; and Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery—Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2023 I Am Because We Are, Rhodes House, Oxford
2021 Zuleika Gallery, Woodstock, Oxford
2020 Spotlight exhibition, London Original Print Fair, Online
2019 A Witness to Power Saïd Business School, Oxford
2018 Encounters St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London
2017 Solo Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, Sussex
2016 The Dance of Colour Flowers Gallery, London
2015 Jealous Gallery, London
2014 Jewish Museum, London
2013 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Soane Museum, London; Australia House, London; Flowers Gallery, London
2012 Stadium Suite, Cultural Olympiad, Olympic Park, London
2011 Library of Congress, Washington DC
2010 Harvard University, Boston; Bruce Castle Museum, London
2007 Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
2005 Vinyl factory, London
Public Collections:
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
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2020 Winter Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2020 Isolated Observations Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, Sussex
2018 Grayson Perry’s Room of Fun Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London; London Art Fair, Islington Design Centre, London
2017 The Diaspora Pavilion 57th Venice Biennale, Venice; Good Nature Candida Stevens Gallery
2016 Icon Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, Sussex
2015 Small Is Beautiful Flowers Gallery, London; Good Figures Mall Galleries, London; Good Figures The Downland Jerwood Gridshell Museum, Sussex
2014 Small is Beautiful Flowers Gallery, New York; The Discerning Eye Mall Galleries, London; Local Reflections: Nelson Mandela and the Haringay Anti-Apartheid Movement, Bruce Castle, London; London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2013 Art, Election and History Flowers, London; Recent Prints Flowers, London; Small is Beautiful Flowers, London
Multiplied Christie’s, London; Pulse Contemporary Art Fair New York; The London Print Fair Royal Academy, London;
The Loughborough Hotel, London
2012 BlindArt Moorfields Hospital, London; Cultural Olympiad Haringey, London; Pellafort Press London
2011 BlindArt Banbury Museum, Banbury
2010 Inspired by Soane The Soane Museum, London; Touching Art Touching You Hove Museum & Art Gallery, Brighton; East Wing Collection The Courthauld Institute, London
2009 Permanent Collection, Royal College for the Blind, Hereford
2008 BlindArt Museum of Modern Art, Wales; BP Portrait Award exhibited at: National Portrait Gallery, London; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum; Aberystwyth Arts Centre
A Sense of Space: The Blind Culture exhibited at: McIntosh Gallery, Western University, Ontario; Glenhurst Gallery of Brant, Canada; Touching Art Touching You Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro; On Time The Courthauld Institute, London
2007 Permanent Collection, Ontario Glenhyrst Gallery of Brant, Canada; Boundless Menier Chocolate Gallery and Southward Council, London
2006 BP Portrait Award exhibited at: National Portrait Gallery, London; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum; Royal West of England Academy, Bristol; Blind Art USA exhibited at: National Public Library for the Blind, New York; British Embassy, Washington D.C.; Shoes - The Agony & Ecstasy exhibited at: Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead; Norwich Castle Museum; Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford; Tully House Museum, Carlisle
2005 Portraits 2005 Arndean Gallery, London; BlindArt Royal College of Arts, London
2004 New Sound New York The Kitchen, New York; Winchester Festival of Art & the Mind, Winchester; Retrospective 291 Gallery, London
2003 A Laughing Portrait exhibited at: Cork Arts Festival, Ireland; Port Eliot Literary Festival Cornwall; Royal Brompton Hospital, London; Your Shout Awards Winchester