BIOGRAPHY AND BACKGROUND

 

Nikki's presentation charts her artistic journey from paper based pieces through to the mixed media textiles she now produces. She brings a wealth of work with her, comprising of more than thirty pieces of textile and mixed media artefacts. These are available to the audience to handle and photograph. Nikki explains the influences and the story behind each piece, ranging from ancient imagery through to more contemporary references. Also featured is a set of work which highlights the problems of plastic pollution in our oceans. Nikki talks for an hour and will answer questions from the audience. 

 

Mixed media / textile artist 

 

Nikki Parmenter is a  Cheshire based artist who specialises in mixed media textile pieces. She takes her inspiration from a variety of sources and is particularly interested in the way societies created a series of visual symbols to represent the things which were important to them. She investigates myths, legends, stories, and beliefs. She is also inspired by  art, architecture and artefacts.

 

These elements are combined together to create stunning artworks in both 2 and 3 dimensions.  These include reliefs, wall hangings, and sculptures. Each piece incorporates a huge variety of different media including textiles, free machine and hand embroidery, up cycled elements,  metal, hose pipe, wood, plastics, acrylics, spray paint and much more.  These are richly coloured and heavily embellished with beads and other decorative elements. What makes these pieces unique is their size, with many images being produced on a large scale. They also reflect the depth of research and detail undertaken to contextualize each piece.

 

Nikki taught art for 30 years to secondary school children, and having left full time work in 2016 ,  has been providing talks, demonstrations, summer schools,  workshops to schools, groups and societies. She is a member of various art and textile groups.

 

She exhibits her work widely and has solo exhibition at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead from October to December this year. She has also shown work in various mixed shows and solo exhibitions and has won art prizes. She has written a number of articles for both magazines and  online sites. She had been invited to tutor in Australia in 2020.