Art News
Meet The Others: Nonci Nyoni
The Game Changers. The Rule Breakers. The Innovators. Discover some of the fantastic emerging talent showcasing their work at The Other Art Fair.
Meet Sydney based artist Nonci Nyoni, who has delved within herself to bring beautiful art to the surface – an expression of her creative journey. What emerges is a body of work that uses colour-as-emotion, bringing life and vitality to any space whilst telling a story on the canvas.
Q&A with the artist
What led you to art?
I was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. I moved overseas for university many moons ago and have lived in Melbourne, Perth, London and am now based in Sydney, Australia. I have always had a love of art and expressing myself creatively through handcrafts and painting; be it making friendship bracelets as a child and little handmade ‘good luck’ note cards for my classmates in junior school before exam time – making things is just something I’ve always enjoyed doing. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a little girl and after several years of university study I decided to revive this area of creativity again. A short period at art school several years ago was a definite catalyst to me wanting to do more with my artwork and thus Nonci Nyoni Art was born!
“Painting and creating is a celebration of freedom and not holding back or conforming to ‘what should be done… I follow no rules.”
I hope that people see that there is beauty even in simple forms and that my work connects with them in a way that brings joy, peace and a little fun into their world.
Are you a full time artist, or do you have another job?
I am a part-time artist and work an Interior Stylist for Interior publications. I love that there is an intersection between my love of art and colour and my love and passion for interiors, furniture and styling interior spaces in different colours and textures that can change over time. My work in the interior styling field exposes me to a lot of different design work, artworks, beautiful ceramics and other creative pieces and products – its a world full of creativity and therefore inspiration. I love that I have so much exposure to beautiful products and that I have that creative outlet and then also get to draw from that world and its inspiration to create my own artwork and express my love of colour and texture on the canvas in my own unique way.
What can people expect from you next? Do you have any exciting projects/opportunities coming up?
I’m bringing two bodies of work to the Sydney Fair – both full of vibrant colours and subtle calm tones that I hope inspire joy and fun to the viewer as well as a tangible sense of freedom; a springing ‘out of the box’ feeling. The first body is based around the idea of shapes intersecting – which also symbolises the intersection of not only the colours and shapes on the canvas, but also the intersection of our communities, aspects of our individual life stories, our emotions, our goals – nothing happens in isolation and everything is connected. The second body can perhaps be described as a bit more wild and free – flowing layers of colour over the canvas and markings made with different tools like a brush, palette knife, forks and sticks! This is in addition to other mediums like oil pastel and foil to highlight specific areas of the work and give it an extra layer of ‘zing’!
Shop artwork by Nonci and other trailblazing artists at The Other Art Fair Online Studios
