Born in Essen, Germany, Nicole Henning is a visual artist based in Zurich, Switzerland. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU) and a Master’s degree in Transdisciplinarity from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Alongside her studio practice, she works in theater as a stage and costume designer, an experience that deeply informs her artistic vision.
Henning’s work examines fundamental questions about the individual’s place in contemporary society. Her recent paintings present the world as a colorful, surreal playground, a stage for dramas, games, and enactments where protagonists emerge, blend into their surroundings, and become part of the object world they inhabit. In her earlier works, these stages unfolded in intimate interior spaces such as dollhouses, private rooms, or model landscapes centered around her character Anna. Today, her compositions extend outward, incorporating fragments of consumer culture and leisure industries sourced from her photo archive and the internet.
Her painterly approach captures the immediacy and changeability of reality. Traces of process, vigorous brushstrokes, and vibrant colors convey liveliness, violence, and ambivalence. Drawing inspiration from Pop Art and theatrical backdrop painting, Henning layers abstraction with figuration to create complex mises-en-scène that reflect the constructed realities and simulated worldviews of modern life, while questioning the role of the individual within them.