Shodhana (purification) at Smac Art Gallery Cape Town | Art.co.za Art Exhibition Listings

Nicholas Hales is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, film, and video, with process central to his practice. His works often originate through intuitive, emotionally driven mark-making that forms an underpainting - layered gestures building an atmospheric space shaped by transpersonal psychology, spirituality, neuroscience, and Eastern philosophy. These expressive foundations are held in tension with more resolved and structured elements such as hard lines, geometric forms, and controlled gradients, resulting in abstract compositions that operate as exercises in duality. Nicholas Hales was born in 1970 in Cape Town, South Africa, where he currently lives and works. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Fine Art (1992) and a Diploma in Graphic Design (1991) from the University of Cape Town. Hales has participated in several international residency projects which include: L’Air Arts in Paris, France in 2019; Chateau d’Orquevaux Residency in France as well as Enter Text in Arteles, Finland, both in 2018; and Vermont Studio Centre, residency, USA in 2010.