Gerda Nicholson

Gerda is a textile artist based in Cape Town, South Africa, with over twenty years' experience in the fashion and design industry. After completing a bachelor's degree at the University of Pretoria she was selected for a Masters programme in Antwerp, specialising in the history of costume and design. She then furthered her studies in Salzburg and worked in Amsterdam.

These years spent in Europe gave her a new perspective on the beauty of her own continent - its colours, its textures, its shapes - which she strives to capture in layers of mixed media stitched onto linen. With sensitive and keen observation, her most recent work meditates on the relationship between nature and humanity, between the past and the future. At times this takes on a voice of protest - one of her recent pieces on the endangered White Rhino was auctioned at a prestigious wildlife fundraising event.