Physical space and Emotional time.
Nikita Gill is an advocate for art in the North of England and uses Carnivalesque praxis as a joyful and active disruption of colonialism. She is an artist and curator in training currently engaging in practice with the International institute of visual arts (iniva), Manchester Art Gallery and Touchstones, Rochdale. Her lived experiences are underpinned by her neurodiversity and she is dedicated to nurturing empathy towards artists, artworkers and the people she dreams with. Currently Nikita is exploring collective cultures through a Queer, Decolonial lens. This work presents resistance as healing and recovery against oppression. Nikita hopes that the work will underpin new ways of being in the world as 'other'. The work and structures of decision making will support a trauma informed practice, and how Nikita works with people, objects and histories.
An evolving part of N.A's practice incorporates collaborative investigations with other artists and creatives. They use experimental methods to interpret Carnivalesque theory and encourage discussion around contemporary Afro-Caribbean and British culture.
Nikita is Barbadian-Kittitian. She plays Mas with WeR1 Mas Band and is a descendant of the Leeward Islands people. She holds a degree in Contemporary Photography (BA Hons, 2014) and a Postgraduate degree in Museology (MA, 2019).
CV
Exhibitions:
...I, 2013 - Clear Exhibition, Piccadilly Place
Fugue, 2014 - Semblence, CFCCA
Elecsolacardiograph, 2015 - For What it's Worth, Lincoln House
Places of This Kind, 2016 - Art Show, Victoria Railway Station
Reno at the Whitworth, 2019 - 2020 - Whitworth Art Gallery
Drawing With, Jade Montserrat x Nikita Gill - Block Universe Sessions: Digital Performance
Constellations: Care & Resistance - 2020 - 2023 - Manchester Art Gallery
Programming:
Reno 12 x Studio Space, 2019 - 2020 - Whitworth Art Gallery
A Seat at the Table (for Bodies of Colour), 2019 - Whitworth Art Gallery
Drawing Out (for Constellations: Care and Resistance), 2020 - Manchester Art Gallery
Facing the Past - Judges Lodgings, 2023
Liminal Space (digital/online)
Meandering Networks, Mapping Nations - Glasgow International 2021
Block Universe: Drawing Out, From, With x Jade Montserrat, 2020
Act 1: Ira - Curiosity and Creative Language (Jade Montserrat, Rivca Rubin, Mauri Carlin, Rooted Zine), 2020 - INIVA
Act 2: Scoring Performance (Jade Montserrat, Jack Tan, Amy Lawrence), 2021 - INIVA
Act 3: On Publishing Radical Constitutions (Jade Montserrat, No Matter Poetry, Hamja Ahsan), 2021 - INIVA
Ira Aldridge Study Day, 2021 - INIVA x Future Collect
Collecting Performance Study Day, 2021 - INVA x Future Collect
Bunker Talks (Nikita Gill, MMU)
Harsh Lights (Uthra Rajgopal x Nikita Gill)
Curation:
- BBC Little Postcard Challenge, 2015, Whitworth Art Gallery - Curatorial Assistant
- Healing Histories (Health at Home) 2016, Manchester Central Library - Co-curator
- Excavating The Reno, colonising the Whitworth 2017 - Assistant Curator, Whitworth Art Gallery
- My Recoverist Family, Mark Prest & David Hoyle - Portraits of Recovery Collections Presentation, 2017
- The Reno at the Whitworth, 2018-2019 - Assistant curator
- Joy Forever, 2019 - Assistant Curator, Whitworth Art Gallery
- Constellations: Care & Resistance, 2020 - Manchester Art Gallery
- Reign, Longsight Art Space, 2022
- Fertile Grounds, 2022, Longsight Art Space
- Drawing Inspiration: The Art of the Ceramic Medical Object, Manchester Museum of Medicine and Health (upcoming)
Collections Development:
- Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael, 2016, Whitworth Art Gallery (Digitization Supervisor)
- Ceramic Collection, 2016 - Museum of Medicine and Health (Curatorial Assistant)
- Lucienne Day, 2017 (Digitization Supervisor) - Whitworth Art Gallery
- Collections Management Intern Supervisor, 2015 - 2018
- Collections Researcher, LGBTQ+ collections development, Greater Manchester Police Museum, 2017
- Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection, Digitization Assistant, 2017
- Assistant Curator of Historic Fine Art, Whitworth Art Gallery, 2017
- COMMISSION TO COLLECT, Iniva|Manchester Art Gallery, 2020- 2023
- Exhibition Histories (1980 - 1999), Touchstones Rochdale, 2023 - Present
Residencies:
Art & Nature, ARNA - Harlösa, Sweden 2017
Spirit of the Mas, Secrets of the Ocean - WeR1 Caribbean Carnival Mas Band attaché, England 2017 - present
INIVA Future Collect - Curator in Training, 2019 - 2023
Longsight Art Space - 2022