Debbie Nodder’s
Biography

Deborah Nodder was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Although art has been a lifelong interest and passion, her first degree in 1983 was a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Cape Town, followed by a teaching qualification in 1985. Later, when she was married and had children, living and working in eSwatini, she enrolled in distance education in painting and sculpture with the University of South Africa. Subsequently, she was admitted to an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts at the University of Witwatersrand from which she graduated in 2004. This was followed by Masters in Fine Arts by Research, also with the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating in 2009. Her final exhibition and dissertation centered on Images of Swazi Women Living with HIV. Moving to Germany in 2012 and teaching the IB Diploma Visual Arts students from 2014-2024, she has learnt much more about fostering the creative process in her students. She has expanded her practice by learning different printing techniques. Two enriching experiences were a summer residency at the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico (2016), where she learnt lithography and a screen-printing workshop at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine (2018). She also did lithographic work with The Artist’s Press in South Africa and spent time at Druckwerk in Basel.

Debbie Nodder’s
Artist Statement

“There is fiction in the space between” are words from a Tracy Chapman song. I have often thought that these words could describe my artworks. Almost all my artworks describe places, mostly places that I have seen or inhabited. Places in eSwatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Freiburg (Germany) and Venice. However, in the description of these places there is an abstraction, an expression of emotion and a conversation, perhaps a telling of a story. I find that the natural world is my inspiration: rocks, trees and water. Just as I am grounded by nature, I am attracted to the ephemera: the reflections, the light. My figurative work often hints at human habitation, boats, parts of buildings, cultural symbols or bodies. I like to work with layers and traces of past images, palimpsest. For me, this suggests that our perception of place is shaped by memory, expectation, and history. I don’t generally ask questions through my work but make art to make sense of the varied and chaotic world I see and experience.