Nikki SF

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Nikki SF is a San Francisco-based abstract painter whose work explores movement, layering, and change over time. Working from her studio at Hunters Point Shipyard - a former naval base shaped by layered military histories - her large-scale abstract paintings explore perception and the relationship between natural and built environments. Her work is deeply influenced by the surrounding water and the shifting landscape of the Shipyard, where nature coexists with its industrial past.

Classically trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she holds a BA in Visual and Critical Studies and a Master’s degree in Paleolithic Art from Université Lumière Lyon 2, where she was the first American to graduate from the department. She lived in France for nearly a decade, teaching Art History and English at an engineering university while developing her studio practice. In 2024, she completed the Camino del Norte pilgrimage, walking over 600 miles from Bayonne, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain - an experience that informs her interest in duration, repetition, and change over time.

Her work has been exhibited at institutions and international exhibitions, including the de Young Museum, Miami Art Week during Art Basel, and Times Square, where it appeared on a 12,000-square-foot digital billboard as part of the world’s largest public art fair at the time.

In addition to her studio practice, Nikki serves on the Board of Directors of Shipyard Trust for the Arts, the nonprofit supporting over 300 artists at Hunters Point Shipyard. She is also actively engaged in environmental justice initiatives in Bayview-Hunters Point, including California’s AB 617 Community Steering Committee and the Community Advisory Board for the Reducing Exposure with Air Cleaners and Technology (REACT) in At-Risk Communities study, a research collaboration with UC Berkeley and UCSF.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work examines how unseen systems - environmental, spatial, and temporal - can be translated into visual form through abstraction.

The proximity of water to my studio has shaped my work, which reflects what I see and experience - in both the natural environment and in color.

I work in series, returning to similar structures while allowing each piece to shift and evolve. My paintings are built through accumulation, with marks added, obscured, and reworked over time. This process reflects the way natural systems change - through erosion, growth, and constant adjustment.

Located at Hunters Point Shipyard, my practice is shaped by a site defined by both history and ongoing change. The San Francisco Bay and the Shipyard’s industrial remnants inform a visual language in my work that moves between control and unpredictability.

Painting becomes a way of making the invisible felt, creating space for viewers to engage with what cannot be seen directly.