Nellien Brewer

Bio

Nellien Brewer was born in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1961. She qualified as a Landscape Architect from the University of Pretoria in 1982 and spent the next 20 years in this profession. Fine arts, however, always remained her first love, and she enrolled for the BVA degree at UNISA which she completed in 2011. 

In 2008 she was one of the ‘Top 15’ artists at the Ekurhuleni National Fine Arts Awards. The following year she received the ‘Art on Paper’ merit award at the 2009 Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards. Since then, she has participated in a number of juried group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

Nellien employs a variety of media in her art-making and started working extensively with text in 2007. Her work has since become increasingly computer-based as digital drawing facilitates a level of detail impossible to achieve by hand.

Artist Statement

I am fascinated by the complexity of nature. Life exists in contrast with the laws of physics which hold that systems inevitably break down to reduced complexity. The Theory of Evolution contrasts with the Creation Story accepted by most religions, and this paradox has been my conceptual focus since 2007 when a fellow student at Unisa (University of SA) lent me the book 'Darwin's Black Box' by Michael J Behe. I was intrigued by Dr. Behe's theory that the process of blood coagulation cannot be explained by evolution, and so I decided that my art-making theme for the year would be “Creation vs Evolution”. The lecturer became quite irritated, and told me bluntly to “let go of your grandiose ideas, and start at the beginning.” This led me to investigate “the beginning”, and this process literally changed the course of my art-making.

It is virtually impossible to find “the beginning”. Scientifically, the Big Bang theory was preceded by a singularity. This is the point at which all the laws of science break down. From a religious point of view, the Bible states that “In the beginning was the Word”. The notion that the ‘beginning’ was something abstract like a thought (or words) seems to be confirmed by the fact that algorithms can be used to ‘explain’ most systems or patterns in nature but cannot be written to describe abstract thought. We also live in a word-based universe, with DNA being the longest word in existence!

For me, “The Word”, therefore, became a metaphor for the intricate codes underlying every natural system, whilst at the same time exploring humankind’s questioning and search for answers. In my work, I juxtapose both biblical and secular philosophical writings against the patterns and systems of the natural world. In my art-making, I employ traditional media as well as digital media. Digital drawing, however, facilitates a level of detail impossible to achieve by hand, which evokes the (often invisible) intricacies of natural systems.

The dominant portion of my art-making now consists of creating digital text works which are based on natural organisms and systems such as lichen, coral, leaves, nests, etc. These images are interpreted in the digital text which is deliberately kept small and uniform (Arial font) so that visual interest is only achieved by combining the units, and not by any interpretation or digital enhancement on the part of the artist. There are no shortcuts or visual tricks – the works are created in Photoshop literally by typing letter for letter. 

Link to CV