![Men and Women looking at artwork](https://webtest.rbkc.gov.uk/explore-kensington-and-chelsea/sites/explore/files/styles/2880x1080_scale_crop/public/2021-10/Civic-Gallery.jpg?itok=f7SQO7HH)
Nikolle Hellis ‘Different’
Nikolle’s work derives from her mixed-race heritage and being brought up in an all-white family and white society while trying to navigate life around the fact of being different and being made to feel different.
An outcast, not accepted, which had a negative impact on how she saw herself. With the daily struggle to be a person who’s comfortable in her own skin; her art has mainly been about her identity and to create a series of art that represents how a mix race woman can feel most of the time.
Glamorous and ugly with warped body dysphoria and a struggle with love and hate with skin colour and hair. Admiration for all woman of different shades but none for her. The overlapping theme of what’s really going on underneath if you scratch the surface. The skin colour of being mixed race but how to identify with black woman in general. Hidden Feelings have been managed over the years and in some works you can see the slightly exaggerated side of facial elements or hair.
The art was created through pain but through that pain art was created.