Liz Nicol
This website is in progress, it’s a bit raw and some of the older projects are not yet fully populated. My intent is to create a web archive, a catalogue, referencing current works in progress, recent projects and earlier projects all in the same place to chart my practice; the old and the new. Many projects are ongoing, some span years, there is overlap and there are works that don’t fit into any of these defined projects. At a later stage, I’m thinking of adding some pages that are process led to cut across the separate projects.
short biography
Liz Nicol is a photographer who lives and works in Exeter and Venice, recent projects are responses to ‘places of conflict’, including WW1 sites of commemoration (France and Belgium), the politically contested space of the Green Line (Cyprus) and the fragile ecological environment of the salt marshes of the Venetian Lagoon. The photographic element incorporates camera based and camera-less imagery, she predominantly works with black & white photography (analogue) and the historical process of the blueprint, the cyanotype.
Nicol had an established career in education, as a teacher, and a senior manager her later research projects included a residency at Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC) Cyprus that was established between the Land/Water and the Visual Arts research group at Plymouth University and NiMAC, 2013. As one of the co-investigators of Remember Me. The Changing face of Memorialisation, an AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) funded project in collaboration with Hull University (2015–2018), she developed an interest in the national identity of WW1 monuments and flowing from this is her commissioned project on the war cemeteries, designed by Edwin Lutyens.
c.v.
born
1956, Liverpool
education
Degree, Creative Photography, Trent Polytechnic and Derby Lonsdale (1975–78)
employment
1978 – 1981 Lecturer, Art Foundation Nelson & Colne College of Further Education
1981 – 1991 Lecturer, Fine Art Photography, Art & Design, Exeter School of Art
1991 – 1999 Lecturer, Media Arts, School of Humanities & Cultural Interpretation
1999 - 2003 Subject Leader, Media Arts, School of Arts Plymouth Polytechnic
2003 – 2011 Head of School, School of Media & Photography, University of Plymouth
2011 – 2013 Associate Professor Photography
2013 - 2018 MA Photography Programme Leader, Plymouth University
one person shows
2018 ‘Endlessness’ The Broderick Gallery, Hull
2018 Nella Veduta, Serra dei Giardini, Venice, Venice
2016 ‘Field Studies of the Venetian Lagoon’, Torre Massimiliana, Sant Erasmo, Venice
2014 Dialogues, Casa Caburlotto, Venice
2013 Umbra Penumbra, Trattoria dei Tosi, Venice
2008 Figureheads, Viewfinder Photography Gallery, Greenwich, London
2004 St Mary’s lighthouse, Newcastle
2002 Stalled, STATION, Bristol
2001 Viewing Distance, a retrospective, Bergen,Norway
1999 Fathom, Mission Gallery Swansea
1999 Image Centre of Photography, Arhus, Denmark
1997 The Rubber Band Project, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
1986 ‘Possessions’ Spacex Gallery, Exeter
1979 Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
group shows
2019 Where Function Ends: Responses to the architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens, Alex Hartley, Liz Nicol, Oliver Sutherland, Hestercombe Gallery, Taunton
2018/19 Layers of Visibility, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC) Cyrpus
2018 ‘Places Remember’, John Spinks & Liz Nicol, Peninsula Art Gallery, Plymouth University,
2013/14 (o)ther indications, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Cyprus
2010 University Gallery, Northampton University
2009 Triangle Space, Chelsea School of Art
2007 ‘Journey’, Swansea Institute
2007 Trace & Transience, Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World
2006 ‘ UNEASY SPACES’, NYU, New York
2004 EAST international, Norwich
2003 cross currents, Quay Arts, Isle of Wight
2001 Sea Change, Spacex, Exeter
2001 ‘Littoral’, Swedish Storehouse-Museum, Stade. Maritime Museum, Wischhafen/Elbe. Association of Arts, Freiburg/Elbe.
2001 Shifting Horizons: Women’s Landscape Photography Now. Q Gallery & Derby Museum & Art Gallery
2000 Shifting Horizons: Women’s Landscape Photography Now. MAC, Birmingham.
1999/2000 Spacex 21, Exeter, Devon
1999 ‘Littoral’ Exeter Maritime Museum
1998/99 IKON touring, Behind the Scenes
1996 Viewing Distance, Newlyn Orion Art Gallery
1996 ‘Swinging the Lead’ Old Leadworks, Bristol
1996 ‘Sightlines Open’, Honiton Festival
1996 Burgess Salmon, solicitors, Bristol
1995 ‘Heaven’s Embroidered Cloths’ Cameraless Photography, National Museum of Photography Film & Television, Bradford
1994 Umbra Penumbra, Spacex Gallery & St. Nicholas Priory, Exeter
1994 Drawing with Light, working in the Dark, King St. Gallery Bristol
1994 ‘Mothers and Daughters’, Cairn Gallery
1994 Works on Paper, Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff
1993 Recollection, Dartington Gallery
1992 Unit 10, Harlequins shopping centre, Exeter
1992 Women Artists of the South West, Spacex Gallery, touring
1991 The Boundaries Are Down, Exeter & Devon Arts Centre
1991 Affairs of the Heart, Untitled Gallery, Sheffield
1990 The Ritual Show, Exeter Faculty of Art
1989 Spectrum Women’s Photography Festival, Spittlefields Health Centre, London
1988 ‘If This Your Mother Knew’, Submarine Gallery, London
1989 Fixations, Brewery Arts Centre Kendal
1988 Fixations, Spacex Gallery, Exeter
1984 ‘Underwater’ Plymouth Arts Centre
1984 The Portrait Project, Spacex Gallery, touring
1983 Open show, Brewhouse, Taunton
1979 Open show, Harris Museum, Preston
1979 The Native Land, Mostyn Art Gallery
1978 Midland Group Photography, Nottingham
1978 13 Photographers, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
1977 Open show, Barcelona
curatorial projects
2013 Reflecting The Rural: photographs by James Ravilious, Peninsula Arts, Plymouth University, co-curated with Martyn Warren
2012 Reflecting The Rural: photographs by James Ravilious, Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) co-curated with Martyn Warren
residencies
2013 Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC)
conference papers
Lutyens’ War Works: A dialogue between photographic and architectural space, Hestercombe Gallery, 2019.
Photography and Loss, University of Hull. 2018
Photography and Water/ Waterscapes as Cultural Heritage, Ca Foscari University of Venice and Civilita dell’Aqua International Centre in cooperation with the UNESCO Venice office and the Instituto Veneto di Science, Lettere se Arti. 2015
Shadow Drawings/ Land 2, Plymouth College of Art. 2014
With Water/ Land/Water and the Visual Arts Plymouth University. 2013
Reflecting the Rural/ Curatorial Practices Reframed: Politics and Pedagogy in Curating Contemporary Art, University of Cyprus. 2013.
publications/catalogues
Keep your Kodak Busy: Monuments of the Great War, Liz Nicol & Jane Hutchinson, 2019 Mortality (Taylor & Francis). https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2019.1682982
Layers of Visibility, NiMAC/University of Plymouth, Artist Residencies 2013-2017 Edited by Liz Wells.
Figureheads over time, Fictions, Land/Water & the Visual Arts, edited by Liz Wells and Simon Standing 2006.
EAST International 2004, text Lesley Kerman.
Shifting Horizons: Women’s Landscape Photography Now. Edited by Liz Wells, Kate Newton and Catherine Fehily. I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 1 86064 635 2