Nina Battley - Artist Biography
Nina was born in Germany and lived in Indonesia and Iran before immigrating to Australia in 1978.
Nina holds a diploma in Fine Arts from the WA Claremont School of Art and a certificate in Interior Design.
As an evolving creative artist Nina has a great love for interior design but finds her greatest passion to be abstract painting. She has been involved in numerous solo and mixed art exhibitions around Australia since graduating in 1992.
2005 she moved from Perth to Darwin, where she worked from her studio in Darwin’s northern suburb of Nightcliff finding the combination of her love for the lush tropics and the Northern Territory landscape a total inspiration resulting in a string of very successful solo exhibitions in Darwin.
In 2009 she was presented on the Sunday Arts program and in several media publications. In 2010 Nina was the winner of the Wyndham Estate Plate Awards and also a finalist in the Northern Territory Togart Contemporary Art Awards.
After 8 years in the tropics, Nina and her partner decided 2012 to move to Newcastle to be closer to family, and the decision was made to purchase 3 Elizabeth St, Tighes Hill, with the intent to create a hybrid working studio gallery and home alike. After extensive renovations and extensions, this space has now become a reality as MiiOstore, which not only provides a showroom for Nina, but also other artists and designers. MiiOstore is a combination of fine art and Nina’s skill and passion for interior design.
Most recently, Nina’s painting ‘From Seed’ has been acquired by Leeuwin Estate for their Art Series Sauvignon Blanc 2014 vintage which has been released in Nov 2015, recognizing Nina’s potential as a contemporary Australian abstract artist. Nina has been included in a number of mixed exhibitions in Newcastle since arriving in 2014.
Nina’s paintings are very much inspired by her surrounding influences, subjects, mood and love of design & colour. She uses a repertoire of motifs and symbols such as loops, thick lines, odd shaped circles and pointed edges that repeat themselves and tell her story in some shape or form throughout her paintings.
She seems to stumble across themes, and playfully uses these and threads them together with painted grids and beating life lines. Her bold choices of colours bravely weave their way through and around all the layers of her painted stories.
I am always surprised by the outcomes of my paintings – I know what the influences are before I start and where I am heading, but so often the journey is diverted or hijacked and I go with the flow of what’s unfolding before me. Painting is like an experiment to me, I never quite know the end result but the journey getting there is filled with a mixture of wonderful ingredients.
CV 1966 Born in Germany 1972-1976 Lived in Jakarta, Indonesia 1976-1977 Lived in Teheran, Iran 1978 Immigrated to Australia, W.A. 1984-1986 Lived in Germany 1996 Travelled Asia, South America & Europe 1997 Returned to Australia, W.A 2005 Moved to Darwin, NT Australia. 2012 Moved to Newcastle, NSW Australia. Qualifications 1998 Certificate of Creative Courses in Interior Art & Design 1987- 1992 Diploma in Fine Arts, WA School of Art and Design Exhibitions 2016 Christmas Exhibition - ASW Mixed Exhibition 2016 MiiO Studio Exhibition - Solo Exhibition 2015 Christmas Exhibition - ASW Mixed Exhibition 2013 Paul Johnstone Gallery – Solo Exhibition 2012 Cross Cutural Art exchange NT _ Mixed Medium Exhibition 2011 The Studio Gallery Yallingup WA – Viewpoint Exhibition 2010 Cross Cultural Art Exchange – Christmas Exhibition 2010 Togart Contemporary Art Awards – Mixed Exhibition 2010 DVAA – Wydham Plate Awards Exhibition- Mixed Exhibition 2010 Cross Cultural Art Exchange – Solo Exhibition 2009 Christmas Exhibition - CCAE Mixed Exhibition 2009 Metro Art Space – Adelaide – Mixed Exhibition 2009 Gallery 139 Adelaide - Mixed Exhibition 2009 Don Whyte – Darwin - Mixed Exhibition 2009 CCAE Darwin- Solo Exhibition 2009 Stone Island Darwin – Solo Foyer Exhibition 2009 Mantra Pandanus Hotel Darwin – Solo Foyer Exhibition 2008 Darwin Entertainment Centre - Mixed Exhibition 2008 Cross Cultural Art Exchange Darwin - Solo Exhibition 2007 Harriet Space Gallery Darwin - Solo Exhibition 2000 Moores Building Fremantle T.A.B. Exhibition 1998 The Hellenic Gallery at the Museum of WA –“Stiletto” 1997 Delaney Galleries “BRAVARDO”- Wearable Art 1995 Port Gallery Fremantle “LIVING ART”- Solo Exhibition 1995 Art Space Gallery Claremont - Mixed Exhibition 1994 Art Expo, Fremantle Passenger Terminal 1993 Greenhill Gallery, Mixed Exhibition 1993 Prickles, Solo Exhibition 1992 PICA, WA. Dance Performance 1992 Joan Cambell Art Expo, Esplanade, Fremantle 1992 Claremont School of Art- Graduate Exhibition 1992 Art Space Gallery, Mixed Exhibition 1991 Gomboc Gallery, Exhibition of Outdoor Sculpture Media & Publications 2010 Off The Leash September issue 2010 Darwin Life September issue 2010 Art Monthly – August/September issue 2010 Outback Australia Magazine – June/July issue 2010 ABC Stateline – TV Art Closer 2009 NT News- Art Fix – October 2009 Art Collector – issue 50 2009 Art Monthly Artnotes- issue 225 2009 West Australian – Written by William Yeoman 2009 Australian Art Review- issue 20 2009 Sunday Arts show - ABC TV 2008 Art World Magazine issue 6 2008 NT NEWS – Art Fix 2008 Art World Magazine issue 2 2008 ABC Stateline NT- TV Art closer 2007 ABC Life Etc Magazine 2007 Resident Magazine 2007 NT NEWS- Art Fix 2007 ABC Stateline NT- TV Art Closer 1997 West Australian - Wearable Art 1995 Fremantle Herald - Nina’s Top of the Table Art Awards 2010 Winner - Wyndham Estate Plate Awards 2010 Northern Territory Togart Awards (Selected) 1998 Save the Whales Art Awards Greenpeace SciTech (High Commendation) 1995 Vincent Art Awards (Selected) 1994 Northam Art Prize Awards (Selected) Collections 2011 Leeuwin Estate Winery – Art Bank Collection 2010 Multiple Private Collectors 2009 Air North 2009 Globetrotter Corporate Travel 2007 SoMa Galleries, Adelaide S.A. 2000 Art Co-ordinates, Private collection Subiaco W.A. 2001 Vermilion, Cottesloe W.A. 1992 Art Space, Claremont W.A.