About
Nicole Dixon was born in Oakland, CA, and in 2002 received a BA in Studio Art at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. As a practicing artist, her exhibition history spans nearly three decades and both coasts, including the Bay Area, Atlanta, Miami, and D.C. She teaches art to youth and adults alike, which has taken her as far as the Kalahari as a guest art instructor.
As an art administrator, she has coordinated nearly a dozen solo shows, curated an exhibition at Oakland’s Joyce Gordon Gallery, and juried a national visual arts award competition. She has also managed the community engagement programs for a number of exhibitions, including a workshop series for San Francisco’s The Black Woman Is God art exhibit. Since 2010, she has coordinated monthly and seasonal family art projects for the Museum of the African Diaspora—designing and facilitating art activities for hundreds of museum visitors of all ages.
As the artist-in-residence for Chromatic Black, an interdisciplinary artist’s collective in D.C., she developed screening and discussion guides for a Fannie Lou Hamer short film during their Oscar shortlist campaign and created a traveling art exhibition for community engagement around their upcoming Ida B. Wells docu-series.
Because she believes art, education, and social justice go hand in hand, she has also taught full-time in the classroom since 2005. As an educator, she has served on her nonprofit Montessori preschool’s Board of Directors since 2009 and assisted in its million-dollar program expansion. As the product coordinator for KnowThySelf Inc., she also uses her passion for education to develop social justice and liberatory curriculum materials that promote positive identity development and empowerment.
Dixon uses her skills as a practicing artist, educator, and administrator for self-actualization, community empowerment, bridge-building, and positive social change.
Artist’s Statement
Beauty, joy, and awe are my birthright. As a Black woman living in a time when many feel we are teetering on an "end-of-days" precipice, I use art to ground myself in truth and sanity, allowing me to claim that right for myself and my community. In the spirit of Sankofa, I reach back for ancestral knowledge, listen to nature, study material and spiritual sciences, and weave the gleanings into my work to anchor my journey.
My work centers the Black body. These unapologetically dark figures subvert anti-Blackness, presenting them as I see them and as we truly are: beautiful, culturally rooted, whole, sacred, abundant, and empowered, despite systemic oppression and the dominant narrative. Like a river to the ocean, my central theme is inevitably the transmutation and transcendence of suffering—an alchemy Black people demonstrate masterfully.
While the concepts I explore can be complex and intense, often confronting socio-political issues, each piece is deliberately alluring and ultimately cathartic. I choose mixed media because the layering of drawing, painting, fabric, paper, and natural objects reflects the complex nature of the themes I address. Charcoal, gold leaf, chalk, wood—each have a unique resonance, infusing my work with a dynamic vibrancy that is communicated both visually and energetically. Symbolic imagery, such as animal totems, medicinal plants, iridescent gold, and cultural emblems, serves a dual purpose: to embody the essence of the archetypes I depict and to serve as offerings that honor and anoint the subjects of my work.
I use the human body as a transcendent icon. The subjects of my work embody socio-cultural, political, and spiritual journeys, serving as touchstones that help keep me whole on my path. My hope is that they become universal figures, partnering with the viewer on a journey toward healing, transformation, and community empowerment.