Nicole Bots

Nicole Bots (Roermond, 1954), lives in Maastricht and works in Puth (Schinnen).

Born the daughter of a brick manufacturer Nicole Bots fell in love with clay at an early age.

After training in Childcare and Handicraft she worked for a number of years for NSDSK (the Netherlands Foundation for Deaf and Hearing-impaired Children). When her own children were young she studied pedagogy. She worked for many years as a pedagogic assistant in the Academic Medical Centre, the teaching hospital of Amsterdam University.  

Nicole Bots never lost her interest in clay entirely, and in 1997 she definitively decided to start using the material professionally.

She took lessons with Dutch ceramists Susan Ohler and Arja Hoogstad, from whom she acquired the necessary ceramic techniques.

Nicole Bots uses clay pigments to colour the clay when still wet. This clay is formed into strips and flat pieces of varying sizes, which are gradually built up to give the figure its final shape.

She is inspired by older and other cultures, by landscapes and architecture, but also by tales and stories. In her work one might recognize an abstract Ecuador landscape or the terraced landscape of the wine-growing Alsace. But not only the shape of her sculptures tells a story: so do the mysterious signs and symbols she impresses on the clay.

The Gallery Archea Ancient Art has allowed Nicole Bots to make use of 5000-year-old cylinder seals from Mesopotamia. This led to her contact with the most important cylinder seal collector in the Netherlands whose seals she is now able to use. The Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam has been showing the collection of cylinder seals and thematic work by Nicole Bots in 2003.

She works intuitively from her imagination. She sometimes ''has a row with the material'' when it will take her many hours to get the clay to do as she wishes. The ultimate shapes are the outcome of her experiences visual and otherwise, readings, feelings and sensations.

Coming exhibitions

2011 Maastricht , june - september Beeldentuin Door-Zicht

2011 Schinnen 15/16 october open atelierroute

2011 Ameland Art Month Ameland, november - gemeentehuis Ballum

Exhibition history

2010 Nieuwkoop - ´t Reghthuys

2010 Valkenburg - Museum land van Valkenburg

2010 Antwerp , Belgium - International Press center Vlaanderen

2009 Puth -  home exhibition Vogelzang
2009 Urmond – little church
2008 Dronten - ABC
2008 Hamburg, Germany – gallery Marziart
2007 Ameland - month of art Ameland
2007 Beek - exhibition municipality house Beek
2007 Puth - home exhibition Vogelzang
2007 Nuenen - gallery 't Weefhuis
2006 Amsterdam - exhibition at home with friends 
2006 Amsterdam - de Beeldenwinkel
2005 Heerlen - municipality house Heerlen
2005 Amersfoort - gallery Beeldlijn
2005 Den Haag - gallery De Vlaming
2005 Schinnen - art route Schinnen
2004 Amsterdam - gallery Vromans 
2004 Nuenen - gallery Het Weefhuis
2004 Jabeek - gallery Rem
2004 Etten-Leur - Kunst op de Koekoek
2003 Amsterdam - Allard Pierson Museum 
2003 Amsterdam - gallery Vromans 
2003 Amsterdam - exhibition at home with friends
2003 Baarle-Hertog, Belgium - gallery De Verbeelding Baarle-Hertog
2002 Amsterdam - gallery Mia Joosten 
2002 Amsterdam - gallery Archea Ancient Art 
2002 Nuenen - gallery Het Weefhuis 
2002 Banholt - gallery De Mestriner 
2002 AFA Rosmalen/gallery Het Weefhuis 
2001 Maastricht - gallery Tracé
2001 Venray - gallery Rooyart
2000 Jùlich-Koslar, Germany - gallery De Nickelschuppen 
1999 Amsterdam - exhibition at home with friends 
1997 Amsterdam - exhibition at home with friends