Biography

Born in 1978 (Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia), Nadezda Nikolova is a photographic artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA), Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), SAMoCA Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (Riyadh, SA), Monterey Museum of Art (Monterey, California), and Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana),

Nikolova's work has been featured in The Washington Post, British Journal of Photography, The Architectural Review, and Black & White Photography Magazine, among others, and is exhibited and collected internationally. In 2023, Nazraeli Press published her monograph entitled Elemental Forms.

 

She has lectured about her work at various universities and photographic institutions, including SUNY Plattsburgh (New York), Penumbra Foundation (New York), Center for Photographic Art (California), and Santa Fe Workshops (Arizona). 

Artist Statement

Elemental Forms, Landscape no. 166, 2021 Unique Wet Plate Collodion 8 x 6.5 inches  Unique

Elemental Forms, Landscape no. 166, 2021

Unique Wet Plate Collodion

8 x 6.5 inches 

Unique

Anchored in a deep connection to the landscape and fascination with the photo-based object, my work investigates how observing Nature informs contemplation, perception, and identity. My process involves daily walks to connect with the landscape. I distill the gleaned information into sketches which I then translate into photographic image-objects in the darkroom using light, wet plate collodion chemistry, paper cut-outs, cliché verre, and brushes. The experimental camera-less compositions created through multiple exposures allude to landscapes, light and atmospheric phenomena, and organic forms found in nature. Rather than transcribing the observed landscape, I seek to record intuitive responses that speak to the felt and ineffable experiences of being fully present in the landscape: to a sense of wonder, awe, and permeating immanence, while simultaneously meditating on loss, hope, and meaning. 

Straddling the line between representation and abstraction, the pared down visual vocabulary arises from the immediacy of the photogram as I explore the boundaries of the photographic medium, placing it in conversation with painting, collage, graphic arts, and sculpture. The compositions, ranging in mood from contemplative stillness to dynamism and movement, employ shape, artifact, gesture, and tonal range to explore balance and rhythm. 

 

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