Nicole explores contemporary themes through textile art and in so doing, explodes its association with gentleness and the domestic. Through her medium, she delivers powerful commentary on resistance, power, patriarchy and political systems.
Nicole Kemp works as an artist, teacher, and mentor presenting a diverse range of creative experiences.
Her work is included in public collections. In 2021, her Covid Quilt was collected by Museums Victoria. This quilt provides a dynamic, emotive and powerful representation of the lived experience of COVID-19 in the State of Victoria from March 2020 - January 2021
Nicole is represented in several book publications and art magazines and was interviewed by ABC National News, Australia, in 2021, Artists in Lockdown.
Click below to learn more about and register for Nicole’s Craftivism workshop
RANTINGS OF A MAD FEMINIST SERIES 1-20
In 2021, Nicole began Rantings of a Mad Feminist, an ongoing series of small, hand-stitched panels born from a place of female anger. Each piece is both subtle and confrontational—designed to resemble traditional, decorative quilts, yet loaded with activist statements that demand close inspection and critical thought.
The work explores the complex and often unseen layers of female experience: the erasure of women in the art world, censorship, domestic violence, and the pervasiveness of patriarchy. The panels whisper and scream all at once. They call on men to take responsibility and urge women to remain vigilant. The insidious power of patriarchy is so deeply embedded that many remain blind to its influence.
At the core lies a simple but powerful question: Why is feminism still a dirty word?
Nicole challenges the manipulation of feminism by the media and institutions that benefit from keeping women silent and divided. At its heart, feminism is the belief in social, economic, and political equality for all people. There is nothing offensive in that truth—except, perhaps, to those who fear what equality demands.
Through thread, cloth, and rage, Nicole demands to be heard.
