Nicola Brandt's work examines power, landscape, and the intersections of private and public memory, tracing where these forces converge and at times collide. She is among the first of her generation of Namibian artists to critically engage with the memory culture and entanglements of German colonialism, National Socialism, and Apartheid, and their spatial and embodied legacies. Through documentary, performative, and post-documentary approaches, she invites viewers to consider not only what is visible, but also what remains absent or obscured.

Her exhibition The Earth Inside (National Art Gallery of Namibia, 2014) addressed the Herero-Nama-German War (1904–1908) and Genocide through the lens of landscape, while her video Indifference was presented in a parallel exhibition of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Brandt’s work has been presented at institutions including MAXXI Museum (Italy), Würth and MARKK Museums (Germany), the Rhodes Trust (UK), the Nirox Foundation (South Africa), and the National Art Gallery of Namibia. She holds a DPhil in Fine Art from the University of Oxford and is the author of Landscapes between Then and Now (Bloomsbury, 2020) and The Distance Within (Steidl, 2025). Her practice has contributed to diplomatic cultural dialogue, including intergovernmental talks between Namibia and Germany.

Selected Collections

Würth Collection, Künzelsau, Germany
Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, Windhoek,
Namibia National Art Gallery of Namibia, Windhoek
Embassy of Namibia, Berlin, Germany
Iwalewahaus Collection, Bayreuth, Germany
Rhodes Trust, Oxford, United Kingdom
Scheryn Art Collection, Cape Town, South Africa
The Joseph Schepers–Germaine Lijnen Fund, Brussels, Belgium
Amawal Collection, Spain
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Hamburg, Germany

AWARDS + SCHOLARSHIPS (selected)

2024

Berlin Global Village Decolonial Memorial Competition, Top Five Shortlist

2023

Doek! Literary Awards / Bank Windhoek, Visual Art Shortlist

2020-21

Kowitz Foundation Grant (for Conversations Across Place)

2017-18

Gerda Henkel Foundation Fellowship

2016

IFA Grant

Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Humanities and Social Science

2014

Namibian Film and Theatre Awards, Special Mention (Indifference)

2010-14

Hugh Pilkington Scholarship, Christ Church, University of Oxford

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