Nothing is Small in Nature: Nicki Rolls

Nicki Rolls presents an exhibition of large scale charcoal drawings of flowering plants that live in the wild.

Working loosely in charcoal, Rolls aims to capture the plant’s life and movement and, for the duration of the drawing, passage through time. The plants are often drawn with their roots exposed, revealing their source of life and energy but paradoxically, also their vulnerability and fragility.

The wildflowers are drawn life size or larger, seeking to celebrate the majestic and to foreground smaller plants and less prized plants and weeds.

Nicki Rolls is a London-based artist. She works across different disciplines, including drawing, painting, video and installation. She gained her Masters in Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art in 2011 and graduated in a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art in 2005.

Rolls has exhibited both nationally and internationally. She had a solo exhibition at Concrete Cafe, Hayward Gallery (On and On, 2012). Selected previous group exhibitions include Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London (2022), Searching the Line, Filter4, Basel Switzerland (2017), Colliderscape, APT Gallery, London (2016) and We All Draw @ UAL, Bargehouse, London (2015). She was part of the touring Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2011, at which she gained First Prize Student Award and she was shortlisted for Jerwood Moving Image Award in 2007.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an Artist’s Talk on Sat 29 October, 2.30pm.

Nicki Rolls will talk about her work and influences. She will also be joined by Dean Griffiths, architect and lead designer on the Northcote Nature Reserve project. He will talk about the evolution of the nature reserve as a creative response to nature and habitat enhancement within an urban setting and related community and ecology programmes.