Colouring our Bay and our Mall
Hailing from a sleepy King Williams Town and daughter to an artistic and poetic father, Nicci has lived anything but a quiet and a tranquil life.
Losing her mom as a teenager and supported by her stepdad Ronald, Nicci pursued her love of art at university. She spent some time exploring her artistic flair at Castellano Beltrame in East London, where sculpting and spray-painting decorative beads took front and centre stage. With bright bold colours, Nicci had a great desire to push the conservative design boundaries to new limits for the international home décor market.
With the mounting pressures of cheaper Chinese substitutes, the Castellano Beltrame factory was forced to close its doors and so Nicci became involved in Wild Coast Abalone and running a scuba dive shop with her husband, Tom Swartz, in East London. During this time, she completed her BTech Degree in art, where she focused her dissertation on the Cathartic Divide.
With a joint passion for protecting our coastlines from being looted by illegal poachers, Nicci and Tom soon moved to Gqeberha, where they formed a significant part of the Abalone Anti-Poaching Unit, living and working out of the Cape Recife Lighthouse for over five years. Partnering with some of the largest intelligence agencies in the country, Nicci was sent to Pretoria, for formal K9 instruction, with her K9 partner, Blu. Art took a back seat to the daily adrenaline rush and the exhilaration of hunting the hunters, with a fierce determination to help make a difference.
When Tom was badly hurt during an anti-poaching operation and forced to retire from the unit, Nicci took over at the helm and continued to pursue criminals on foot, into the late and small hours.
Tom went on to enter and win Survivor South Africa, following which he became a motivational speaker, travelling the country, in aid of giving back and inspiring people to grow and achieve.
At a crossroads in her life, in March 2019, Nicci decided it was time to hang up her combat boots and pick up her paint brush again. Since then, she has never looked back. With the wide support of Tom’s social network, her unique and vibrant art has literally taken off, with commissions from as far abroad as the Cayman Islands, Australia, New Zealand and even the Standard Chartered Bank in Sri Lanka. Saatchi Art has even awarded her the privilege of producing a spectacular piece on Mandela.
Nicci’s Urban Contemporary – meets Pop Art style, using bright and bold colours in her local landscapes, was the obvious go to for the Boardwalk Development, when looking for the ultimate artistic partner to feature in the mall.
“Boardwalk Mall has been my biggest and most exciting commission to date. My art is for everyone to enjoy. And as a universal language, this art should spread joy and celebrate the unique, vibrant and resilient spirit of our city and country”.
It is with great anticipation that the Mall looks forward to the great privilege of working with Nicci again, as the opening of Phase 2 becomes imminent.