Nicolene Burger is a multimedia artist playing in the fields of painting, installations and performance art, though her relationship with practices of creative expression extends into the way she navigates life itself. Art for Nicolene is a form of embodiment: “art is the medium through which I delve into myself, get to know deeper parts of myself, and the way I study life and how my brain works.”
Nicolene’s first time connecting with oil-paint was in University studying Fine Arts. Discovering the flow state of this medium was like finding her ‘mother tongue’. Her teacher at the time encouraged her to intentionally seek discomfort in her work, going beyond the comfort zone and into experimental styles. She started painting with tones that reminded her of childhood, and so evoked reminiscence, nostalgia, and memory. “It made me feel really vulnerable. I found myself extremely exposed, and so I could discover something new.” Nicolene recently completed her master’s degree in Theatre and Performance, which she felt called to because of the way it fleshes out movement as art, and how the physical form can embody and express. She views movement as a passage to access the potent space that exists before verbal communication.
Her broad-spectrum work now roots in deep personal inquiry, a curiosity for memory, identity and how any form of art can be a bridge to communication and transformation. The balance between chaos and structure is a major part of her teachings. Chaos is found in surrendering into the unknown and trusting one’s inner compass, while structure supports grounding and one’s ability to manifest something tangible from the ether of creativity, “We need methodologies, practices and ritual to help us to stay in communication with the mystery and the muse.”
As a Creativity Doula, Nicolene offers sessions and process work that dive into one’s relationship with creating. She combines psycho-somatic work with coaching and a unique way of mapping out an individual’s personal creative cycles: this supports deeper understanding of the psyche, like its push-and-pull between both desiring and resisting being seen. “I’m fascinated by the life/death life cycle of creativity. I help people to sit with what is dying, to understand why their creation has gone into the underworld. And then to birth on the other side of that - right after a death there is a birth.”
True vulnerability, authenticity and responsibility are core values that Nicolene lives by. She moves intimately with the cycles of all things, drawing great inspiration and passion from the tapestry of creative potential across the human experience. Her essence echoes the belief that we are the creators of our own lives: “When people believe that, they will be authentic, they will take responsibility and they will live with the kind of vulnerability that’s really needed in the world.”
This exhibition - Slowing Down - centres around unravelling ideas of time, sense-of-self and transition. Through texture, colour, and stillness, these paintings are a contemplative meditation on deep reflection, what it means to find home, and the power of presence.
“In the act of making, I find myself again. Through repetition. Through patience. Through the tender acceptance of not knowing what comes next. At its heart, Slowing Down is an invitation to listen. To the pulse of memory. To the quiet work of the hands. To the spaces between thoughts and the endless hum of “what needs to happen next.” It is about presence, about honouring the texture of time as it unfolds.”
- excerpt from Nicolene’s Artist Statement
Visit us at - 153 Strand Street, De Waterkant - to explore this exhibition which will be on showcase for November 2025.
Find Nicolene on instagram
Check her website for more offerings
www.nicoleneburger.com
Words by Boudica Collins
Images by David Plenderleith
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