October 01, 2022 - November 12, 2022
490 Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria, South Africa
Solo Exhibition of Nicol Rowe
Spectrums of light
“The electromagnetic spectrum describes all kinds of light, including those the human eye cannot see. In fact, most of the light in the universe is invisible to our eyes. The light we can see, made up of the individual colours of the rainbow, represents only a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Other types of light include radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, and gamma rays-all of which are imperceptible to human eyes.”
There are seven types of electromagnetic waves. In my solo exhibition
‘Spectrums of light,’ I have included television, radar, and aura light. My
choice to add aura light is because we, as humans, also emit light.
It is my belief that science, art, and faith are all correlated. According to Hebrews 11:1, it states: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
The definition of faith to which I am referring and as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is to have: “Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”
In seeking to discover what lies beyond the unknown, scientists not only have faith in themselves but also faith in their experiments and theories. It is that kind of faith that has led to the discovery of all the different light wavelengths and frequencies which are imperceptible to human eyes.
Without their tenacious faith, they would not have been able to create the highly sophisticated and technologically advanced machines that make visible to us the light that is otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
I think that in the same way, when artists create their artworks, nobody can see what the artist is thinking or imagining, either consciously or subconsciously. It’s only when the artist steps away from a finished piece of work that that which is unseen in his or her mind becomes visible. Like scientists, artists need to have faith, hope, and tenacity to arrive at work nurtured and wrestled with in their minds, but executed within the visible realm of light. That is what I have striven to do in the work I have produced for this exhibition.
Nicole Rowe
Nicole Rowe is a mixed media artist. She has frequently exhibited at The Viewing Room and ArtBox galleries.
She obtained her diploma in Fine and Applied Arts at Tshwane University of Technology and completed her B-Tech Degree there with a diploma in glass. Participating in workshops at the Ngwenya Glass Factory only served to reinforce her love for the medium.
Her approach to creating work is unusual. Using glass as her primary resource - be it textured, digitally printed, spray painted, or sandblasted - she then sets out to combine it with other mediums.
In 2022 she participated in the United Nations International Year of Glass, ‘Fired Up!’ exhibition held at the Pretoria Art Museum.
She was excited by the possibilities that the digital domain could offer and she started actively pursuing and experimenting with various mediums in 2019.
Nicole is the first to acknowledge that this approach can be challenging, but is often surprised by results that can be both unexpected and thrilling.
In 2018 she was selected to take part in an exhibition entitled Back to the Future featuring Contemporary South African Glass Artists and hosted by The Association of Arts in Pretoria. Her work was also shown at the same venue in 2016 in an exhibition entitled Out of the Fire, and into the Light.
In 2015 she was sponsored by Telkom for the ITWeb Brainstorm Calendar Competition and in the same year, she held her first solo exhibition A Beautiful Mind at the gallery Art Lovers 1932.
In 2014 Nicole was selected as one of the Top 10 winners of ABSA L'Atelier. In two blogs relating to her work written by Micelle Coetsee, one was titled: Nicole Rowe - The FREEDOM to Be and the other Nicole Rowe - Passionate Conceptual Artist.
Nicole was born in 1982 and now lives in Centurion, South Africa.