A Day in the Life: Nicole Coson
Personal history and material culture
By Nicole Coson
‘A Day in the Life’ is a series by A&M where we invite artists to share a day in their life through images accompanied by brief descriptions.
Nicole Coson.
Nicole Coson (b. 1992, Manila) examines the complexities of invisibility and memory in her artistic practice. Characterised by repetition and abstraction in her body of work, the London-based artist combines painting, analogue printmaking, and sculpture. Her process engages with personal history and material culture, where everyday objects are transformed into visual obfuscations that invite viewers to contemplate intimacy, society, and coloniality. In this article, Nicole talks about her latest solo exhibition, Membranes, at Silverlens in Manila.
Nicole Coson, Untitled, 2025, oil on linen, 200 x 200cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Silverlens.
This is a work from my latest solo show, titled Membranes, at Silverlens in Manila. This particular piece is a favourite of mine, as I had to crawl on top of it while making it on the floor of my studio. I collected discarded food crates from around East London and through eBay, and turned them into accidental woodcuts by inking and pressing them into swathes of linen.
Nicole Coson, Vanitas series, 2025, polyamide, variable dimensions. Image courtesy of the artist and Silverlens.
This is a close-up of my series of sculptures titled Vanitas, an installation of hyperrealistic replicas of styrofoam mesh packaging that protects the skin of fruit on their journeys across the world. Scattered like food across a table, these artefacts become echoes or ghosts of Spanish still life painting, invoking a timeline of the mercantile history of the Philippines.
Mood board for the Vanitas sculptures. Image courtesy of Nicole Coson.
This is a mood board for the Vanitas sculptures. Often, my sculptures are made either outside of London or digitally on a computer. This constellation of images helped me work out how I wanted them to look and how I was going to install them. The postcards at the bottom are by Heman Chong, an artist whose work I deeply admire.
Works in progress. Image courtesy of Nicole Coson.
These are some works in progress. After making imprints of the crates, I go over them with a paintbrush to add depth, shadow, and dimension.
Nicole’s etching press, “Big Bertha”, and her dog, Frankie. Image courtesy of Nicole Coson.
My etching press, “Big Bertha”, which I inherited from my friend Ian, who ran a print studio in East London called Arcane Studios. Beneath her is my dog, Frankie, who likes to sleep in this spot.
Follow Nicole Coson on Instagram here and visit her website to see more of her works.
Read all A Day in the Life stories here.
About the Artist
Nicole Coson is a Filipino artist whose practice works with familiar objects, using meticulously considered materials and techniques to see what secrets they might contain, what histories they might tell. The resulting work shimmers between opaque materiality and a mysterious feeling that within every mundane object is something more: a source of value, the depths of history, an essence or identity.
