Faculty of Art
Drawing and Painting
Meet the Artist
Nicole
David
Drawing & Painting
“My work is about desire. The strange and murky landscape of desire. The loose threads of historical, cultural, social, political and emotional experiences that become entangled with the white, dominant gaze. From these entanglements, I develop a personal language of darkly expressive and poetic imagery rooted in the exploration of the Black female body and the long standing tradition of the ‘nude’ in western art.These Black heroines coolly reject any gaze put upon them. They exist for and of their desires. Unbound and Unmastered in a space of their own creation.”
Nicole David is a multidisciplinary artist. Her poetic and erotic practice spans painting, drawing, embroidery, collage, writing and printmaking. Engendering subjectivity rooted in exploiting voyeurism and the dominant gaze, David wants to explore collective fictions of the Black Female body in our cultural, social, and public imaginations. Mining from an array of influences including the artist’s personal history, she develops and depicts Black Womanhood in all its unbridled complexity. Through constructing and deconstructing the iconography of the Black Female body, she uncovers new modes of authenticity, agency, and appreciation.
Toronto Metropolitan University
Arts & Contemporary studies
Major Completed, 2014
Toronto Metropolitan University
Curatorial Studies
Minor Completed, 2014
Arts Programming Arts Facilitator Drawing Painting
2025, Lines of Inquiry: Expanding the Boundaries of Drawing
OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2024, Fleshy Desires
Ada Slaight Gallery, Toronto, ON
2023, Up To The Sky
The Great Hall, Toronto,ON
2022, Come As You Are
Ada Slaight Gallery, Toronto, ON
2021, First Year Drawings
OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2021, Introspective Beings
OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2020, “Black =”
OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2023, Marsh Urquhart Memorial Scholarship
OCAD University
Celebrate the work of OCAD U’s class of 2024/2025!