Born 1981, South Africa
Lives and works in The Pyrenees, France
All of Nicky Broekhuysen’s work is binary, both literally and figuratively. The artist paints using only stamps of the numbers 1 and 0, and the work is always intended as having more than one meaning, or comprising more than just the sum total of the marks on the paper. Binary code is a language designed for information exchange – we use it daily for virtually every task imaginable; it surrounds us in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals – and yet it is essentially illegible to humans. Broekhuysen uses that contradiction as part of her work. By further abstracting the binary code and applying the numbers at random, she creates an image which, even if abstract, imparts information to and elicits a response from the viewer. She is thereby both using and deconstructing the language, subverting its initial message while maintaining its initial intent.
Nicky Broekhuysen was born in 1981 in South Africa. At the age of 13 her family moved to New Zealand where she completed her studies. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Auckland University, she moved to Shanghai, China in 2006. It was in Shanghai that she first began working with binary numbers 1 and 0. In 2008 Broekhuysen moved to Berlin, Germany where she continued to develop her language of binary code, exhibiting both in Berlin and internationally for the following 11 years. Recently, in 2019 she has relocated her studio to The Pyrenees in France to be closer to nature and where she continues to create and exhibit.