About
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Nicki Rolls creates large-scale charcoal drawings and paintings of plants, exploring the tenacity and fragility of the natural world. She makes observations of plants that live in the wild, mainly wild flowers and weeds, exploring their relentless pursuit of survival in the face of adversity and their essential vulnerability. Often presenting the plants with exposed, soil-encrusted roots, she wishes to reveal their strength and resilience as well as their frailty and highlight their importance in sustaining the soil and ecologies. The plants are depicted on a large scale, celebrating these often overlooked or rejected species and inviting the viewer to consider our human relationship with the plant world and nature as a whole.
She has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. Her solo exhibitions include Time and Tide, One Paved Court, Richmond, 2025, Carbon and Cellulose, RupturEXIBIT, Hampton Wick, 2023, Nothing is Small in Nature, One Paved Court, London, 2022 and On and On, Concrete Cafe, Hayward Gallery, London, 2012. Following her residency on Northcote Nature Reserve and the River Crane, in collaboration with Astronaut Kawada Architecture + Habitat, her work was shown in their collaborative exhibition, Threshold, at The Lock House, Richmond Lock and Weir. She was shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in 2023 and gained first prize (Student Award) at Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2011. She runs workshops with community groups has run life drawing workshops for many years.
Her studio is based at Redlees Studios, Isleworth, London. She welcomes enquiries and proposals and is open to collaborations. Studio visits can be arranged by appointment - contact
The Lock House, Richmond Lock & Weir, London. Threshold, collaborative exhibition with Astronaut Kawada Architecture + Habitat at their design studios, May - July 2025, based on 2-year residency at Northcote Nature Reserve.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions​
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Power of Water
Embroidery Gallery, Sunbury
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11 artists consider water related impacts of climate change: from flooding to melting ice caps, rising river and sea levels and coastal erosion, the immense power of water is the subject of this exhibition at Sunbury Gallery, right next to the River Thames.
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6 January - 1 March, 2026
Artists' talks: Saturday 17 January & Sunday 15 February
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Diana Armfield Drawing from Observation Award
The Patch, Twickenham
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3 - 10 March, 2026
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Time & Tide, solo exhibition at ​One Paved Court, London, 2025
Turner's House, Twickenham, London, Friends of Our Earth, 2024.
Installation view of Dandelion drawing, charcoal on newspaper articles about climate, as part of the exhibition in the garden. The exhibition was in response to the Turner and The Environment exhibition at Turner's House in 2024.
Nothing is Small in Nature, solo exhibition at ​One Paved Court, London, 2022
Selected Exhibitions
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Solo Exhibitions
One Paved Court, London, Time & Tide, 3 - 28 Sept 2025
RuptureXIBIT, London, Carbon and Cellulose, 27 May - 1 June 2023
One Paved Court, London, Nothing is Small in Nature, Oct 19 - Nov 6 2022
Hayward Gallery's Concrete Cafe, London,On and On, 27 March - 3 June 2012
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Selected Collaborative and Group Exhibitions
Sunbury Gallery, The Power of Water, 2026
Mall Galleries, London, Pastel Society of Annual Exhibition, 2026
Sunbury Embroidery Gallery, The Power of Water, 2026
The Lock House, Richmond Lock and Weir, London, Threshold, Collaborative exhibition with Astronaut Kawada Architecture + Habitat, May - 2025​​​
Ham Library, London, Drawing on Ham Lands: Art & Interdependence, 2025
Turner's House garden, Twickenham, London, Friends of Our Earth, 2024
Pensychnant Conservation Centre, Conwy, Wales, Nature, Environment and Conservation, 2024
Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023
Redlees Gallery, London, Everything glowed with a gleam; Yet we were looking away! 2023
The Exchange, Twickenham, London Diana Armfield Drawing from Observation Award, 2023
Mall Galleries, London, Pastel Society of Annual Exhibition, 2023
Mall Galleries, London, Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition, 2022
​Air Gallery, Altrincham, Manchester, Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, 2018
​Filter4, Basel, Switzerland, Searching the Line, 2017
Palazzo Flangini, Venice, Italy, Contemporary Venice 2016/7
A.P.T Gallery, London, Colliderscape, 2016
​Bargehouse, London, We all Draw @ UAL, 2015
Jerwood Space, London, Jerwood Drawing Prize, 2011
Jerwood Space, London, Moving Image Awards Shortlist, 2007
St Pancras Church Crypt, London, Life cycles, 2007
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Education​​
University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins College, BA Fine Art, 2005
University of the Arts London, Wimbledon College, MA Fine Art, 2011
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Residencies​
Northcote Nature Reserve: collaboration with Astronaut Kawada Architecture + Habitat, 2023 -2025
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Awards
Shortlisted for Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, 2023
First Prize, Diana Armfield Drawing from Observation Award, London, 2023
First Prize Jerwood Drawing Prize, Student Award, 2011
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Carbon and Cellulose, solo exhibition at RuptureXIBIT, London, 2023