The practice
The practice
Nicky Myny’s practice explores connection within, between, and beyond the self through painting, material, and relational process.
Moving between abstraction and figuration, her work investigates how transformation, memory, identity, belonging, and human interconnectedness can be translated into visual form.
At the centre of the practice is a sustained interest in what remains difficult to articulate directly: emotional thresholds, relational atmospheres, invisible shifts in identity, and the tension between individual and collective experience.
Painting functions not as illustration, but as translation.
The painting does not begin as an image, but as a relationship.
A listening. A remembering. A form slowly arriving.
A practice rooted in relation
Autonomous studio inquiry.
Relational, site-responsive work.
Some works emerge entirely from autonomous studio inquiry. Others develop through dialogue, observation, participation, or site-responsive research.
Across paintings, commissions, and collaborations, the work often begins with attention to a person, a place, a relationship, or a moment of transformation.
- Attention
- To presence, relationship, place, and threshold.
- Language
- As a way to translate what resists simple explanation.
- Material
- As emotional residue, embodied time, and visible trace.
- Form
- As translation, not illustration; revelation, not repetition.
Background
From psychology and the arts to painterly inquiry
Originally trained in the arts and psychology, Nicky Myny’s early trajectory centred around human development, perception, and relational dynamics.
Over time, painting became the primary language through which these questions could be explored with depth, ambiguity, and material presence.
An experience with autoimmune illness became a turning point in her understanding of art, the body, and positive health. It opened new inquiries into healing modalities and confirmed, first-hand, how creative practice can support resilience, perception, meaning, and connection.
This became a thriving force behind her deeper research into arts and health, eventually contributing to the foundation of ARTKOM as an arts and health studio and studio-based framework around her painting practice.
Alongside the studio, she has brought her creative voice into corporate, leadership, and institutional contexts, including collaborations with Melexis and Roche, and speaking and moderating at the SDG Tent during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
These trajectories inform the work, but do not define it. The centre of the practice remains the painting.
Between Belgium and South Africa
Two landscapes, one practice
Working between Belgium and South Africa shapes the atmosphere of the work: light, landscape, distance, material memory, and the experience of belonging across place.
This movement between contexts continues to influence the emotional and spatial language of the paintings.
Curriculum Vitae
CV
A full CV with selected exhibitions, collaborations, education and professional contexts is available as a PDF.
Two practices, one artist
Nicky Myny and ARTKOM
Nicky Myny is a contemporary painter working between Belgium and South Africa. ARTKOM Arts & Health is the participatory arts practice she founded, bringing artist-led creative processes into organisations, care contexts and communities. The painting practice lives at nickymyny.com; the participatory practice at artkom.be.
FAQ
Frequently asked
- Who is Nicky Myny?
- Nicky Myny is a contemporary painter working between Belgium and South Africa. Her practice moves between abstraction and figuration, translating transformation, memory, identity and belonging into painterly form.
- What is the difference between Nicky Myny Studio and ARTKOM?
- Nicky Myny Studio is the painting practice: original works, commissions and exhibitions. ARTKOM Arts & Health (artkom.be) is the participatory arts practice she founded for organisations, care contexts and communities. A painting as outcome → this site; a participatory experience → ARTKOM.
- How do I commission a painting?
- Private commissions and the FRAME family commission begin with a short inquiry. Share what you have in mind on the commissions page (/commissions) and the studio will respond personally.
For collectors, commissions, collaborations, studio access, or inquiries, please get in touch.
Contact the Studio