Nicole Durham is a Contemporary Neo-Expressionist Artist living in North Houston, TX. Durham's exploration into nontraditional mediums has awarded her multiple exhibition opportunities, including "best in show" at The Ardest Gallery in The Woodlands, Texas. She is also a founding member of Tenacious Artists, an all-women's artist collective, recently completing their first group show, Elements of Contrast. 

Durham was born in Beidigheim, Germany in 1975 and moved to El Paso, Texas where she became a US citizen at 8. Daughter to a German mother and African American father, her multi-racial upbringing helped mold her creative soul and passion for art. Her work often focuses on a deep exploration of the female form, female emotions, or the myriad of experiences that define womanhood.  

Through nontraditional mediums—whether it be caulk, textiles, found objects, or organic materials,  Durham seeks to transcend conventional representations of femininity and delve into the complexities of identity, resilience, vulnerability, and strength.  

Why caulk? 

Nicole's core material is caulk, which is not on your traditional painting supply list; more like your trip to the hardware store. Caulk. Not to be confused with chalk (which happens quite often) is the material used to line your bathtub, windows, and sinks, etc. 

"I get a lot of funny looks when I tell people my social handle is TheCAULKartist. Lots of jokes at dinners when discussing the name, product, and so many misuses of the often challenging-to-pronounce material...It's all in good fun and def a great icebreaker". 

Nicole first used caulk years ago while multi-tasking between a DIY bathroom update and trying to study an Edvard Munch-inspired emotional self-portrait. "At the time I was dealing with endometriosis and trying to capture my frustrations on a canvas. I was depleted all over. Frustrated with my body, disappointed with modern medicine, annoyed by my male doctor and his lack of empathy, and just pissed with my inability to control things. I tried to take my mind off of things with my art and was even more exasperated with efforts to create linear effects - nothing was working the way I envisioned".

"I get this question all the time.

Utilizing caulk on my creatives Is very much like sculpting and the industrial texture give my creatives a very raw and rough feel that I love. 

A caulking gun is used to extract caulk from tubes and the squeeze can be relentless at times when forced out of the smallest of holes, and just when I’m exhausted beyond my own means and about to give up, it lends me a reprieve. 

The porous material draws out the ambiguity of privileged creating, and I feel like it awards the viewer with dramatic relief and multi-level linear experiences.  

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View my artist statement and CV here. 

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