Lea Nickless

My artistic practice brings together visual art, archival research, and a sustained curiosity about place. Working across watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, and artist books, I explore how landscapes hold traces of human lives and how art can bring those histories into view. Natural structures—roots, mangrove seeds, fossil coral, and microscopic forms—offer ways to consider the relationships between memory, people, and the environments they inhabit.

My recent work focuses on South Florida, particularly the contributions of Bahamian communities to its development. Research often begins with a name, a photograph, or a fragment of information and unfolds through historical records, conversations, and encounters with a site. The resulting artwork creates space for reflection, connecting documentary evidence with material and sensory experience.

In Beloved, my ongoing project centered on Coconut Grove’s historic Black cemeteries, individual names become starting points for exploring migration, family, community, and remembrance. My recent exhibition, The Magic of Miami Beach (2026), considers the city’s transformation through Bahamian labor and changes to its natural environment. Across these projects, I seek to make overlooked histories more visible while acknowledging the gaps that remain and the limits of what can be recovered.