Nicola Atkinson is an internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist and designer whose career has been influenced by time spent on the West Coast of America, in Sweden and living in Glasgow. Her dazzling public artwork specialises in place-making, social cohesion and community engagement and is displayed in museums and landscapes across Scotland, the USA, Cuba, Iceland and Europe.
She is the founder of the participatory art and design studios NADFLY (2003 - 2020) and Beautiful Materials Design Studio (2018 - ongoing)
Her practice is organic and generative, specialising in place making, social cohesion and community engagement, with a commitment to the delivery of well-conceived and durable artworks that inspire and prompt actions, interactions and reactions.
These interventions have been both large and intimate in scale and have influenced behaviour, changed community identities and formed active relationships with the built environment.
Her company Beautiful Materials Design Studio have exhibited at 17th Venice Architecture Biennale , V&A Dundee 2021. You can hear her talk on “Art Came in the Night”; a documentary on public art for BBC Radio 4 2022, presented by artist Kevin Harman. A example of her public artwork is The Memory Tree, 2023, at Aberdeen Union Terrace Gardens design by LDA Design. A memorial crafted in Scotland using high-grade stainless steel.
In 2024 she worked in Winchburgh, Scotland Creative Identity Framework, coming up with a unique concept of Winchburgh Historic Portals, which act as a gateway and record that links to something bigger and more detailed. Designing artworks which have been installed at the three sheltered bus stops on Main Street. The bus stops were a perfect site for the artworks, as a very important link between the Winchburgh community and the surrounding area. They are bright on a dull day and fantastic on a sunny day.
Since June 2023 she has had several studio spaces in offices & shops in Glasgow, Marks & Spencer shop in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. , Call center in West Regent Street, Glasgow, and from October 2024 the Granite House.
Solo show at Linlithgow Burgh Halls Friday, 23 May 2025 to Sunday, 21 September, 2025.
Open in the Avenue Shopping Centre the Beautiful Materials Gallery G77 6AA 15 Nov 2025, as the artist & curator.
Clients have included museums, hospitals, architects, third sector and local authorities from across Scotland and internationally. She has had numerous exhibitions in international venues including Long Beach Museum of Art, CA, USA, Tramway and The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Scotland, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK.
