Bio
Nicole Clift (b. 1994) is a South Australian visual artist, predominantly working in oil paint and tapestry weaving. Nicole’s studio practice engages with concepts concerning natural philosophy and meteorology to speculate on intangible phenomena such as time, entropy and gravity. Nicole's works are abstract, with the field of Abstraction itself referenced as an intriguing language for the intangible.
Nicole was recently commissioned to create new work for the 2024/5 major survey exhibition 'Radical Textiles' for the Art Gallery of South Australia, exhibited alongside works by Sheila Hicks, Sonia Delaunay, Kiki Smith and more. In early 2026, Nicole will be in residence at PADA Studios, Lisbon for 2 months working on a new spatial methods of creating with painting, tapestry and sound.
Nicole's diptych painting 'Particle Wave' recently won the 2025 RSASA Abstract Prize youth category, and her tapestries were selected for two international textile prizes held in Victoria, Australia in 2024.
Nicole holds a first class Honours degree in Visual Art (2019) from Adelaide Central School of Art, South Australia. Nicole has contributed writing to fineprint magazine, the 2024 Neoterica exhibition publication, various solo exhibitions as well as the 2025 Wakefield Press monograph on Dr Sue Kneebone.
Artist Statement
My painted and woven surfaces are concerned with different types of density: optically through pattern and pigment saturation, as well as a physical material density. I feel this preoccupation with 'dense' or 'full' surfaces is my response to the increasingly intangible screen-based imagery of our time.
I create abstract woven and painted works at different scales, which feature repeatable patterns such as grids and lattices, and non-repeating elements such as scribbled loops or platonic shapes. I often reference the field of Abstraction as an apt visual language for approaching the intangible, such as time, gravity and entropy.
Informed by both ancient and contemporary modes of natural philosophy, I am especially interested in poetic and alternative ways of understanding physics and time. In particular, sub-atomic and planetary phenomena that can reveal paradoxes and contradictions within our current understanding of matter and energy. I enjoy referencing these ‘coherence glitches’ as nods to destabilise our authoritative position on a species level. I am also interested in how woven works, particularly tapestries interact within architecture - absorbing sound, diffusing light and insulating temperature.
Photos: Rosina Possingham