ABOUT
With a background in art history and fine art painting, Mary Nicholson explores human archetypes and examines how theatre relates to painting. Her curiosity was first sparked in college when she encountered the Spanish artist Goya; struck by his ability to communicate human emotions such as love and grief with simple gestures, she studied him endlessly and made hundreds of drawings from his oeuvre.
Later, she collaborated with a theatrical performance group in NY for 10 years, making paintings and drawings while the group performed improvised music. Through this process, she gradually developed her own artistic vocabulary. Her work reimagines art history using her own body as a nexus, inviting the viewer to participate in the interdisciplinary crossroads between performance art and picture-making.
BIO
Mary Nicholson (b. 1969, Kent) is a contemporary painter based in the South of France. She studied painting at Chelsea School of Art in London and earned her MFA from Hunter College in New York. Her paintings and drawings have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across New York, Los Angeles, New Jersey, London, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Germany, and France.
Nicholson was invited to create a book for the Pictures and Words collection by STH Editions, pairing a selection of her drawings with poetry. This book was exhibited at the LA Art Book Fair at MOCA and the NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in Queens.
Her work has also been included in several artist books curated by Scott Hug (K48), with exhibitions at Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts (CA), John Connelly Presents (NY), Deitch Projects (Brooklyn), and Agnes B. (Paris). In addition, her paintings have been featured in Artnet Magazine, V Magazine, and NY Arts.
Nicholson’s work has been selected for juried exhibitions with Contemporary Painters, the Royal Overseas League (London), and The Whitworth Young Contemporaries (Manchester Art Centre, UK). Her paintings are held in private collections throughout the United States, Australia, and Europe.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings, deeply rooted in performance, explore the potential of the printed image through theatrical enactment and playful investigation. I see painting as both a physical and cerebral pursuit: a channel for philosophical inquiry that questions how we navigate the tension between abstraction and figuration.
I draw on diverse painterly traditions: from Western court painting and Japanese Edo-period prints to Surrealism and the utopian aspirations of the avant-garde. I constantly play with art historical tropes, mediating between objective and subjective approaches. I often describe the genre of my work as metaphysical pop. Although it offers a pop entry point, it rapidly drifts into metaphysical musing; within shifting terrains, isolated figures and contours can be seen to inhabit charged spaces.
While the overall arc of my work centres on an ongoing inquiry into the act of painting itself, themes I often return to include performers, geishas, art historical paintings and the humble fig.
Though the subjects differ, the underlying threads collectively explore painting as a language with a history, loaded with conventions and power structures, and a legacy that has often marginalised voices. Responding to art history's male-dominated gaze, my goal is to show the world from an interior, feminine perspective. In my recent Geisha series, for example, I effectively turn these ‘muses’ into active subjects with their own inner life, agency, and perspective. In works featuring mirrors, such as 'Mirrored Persona', the Geisha quietly glimpses herself while observing her audience. All is illusion, as the mirror subtly captures the gaze of the artist who made it.
My work is guided by one essential question: how to mediate between visual art, traditionally seen as enduring and permanent, and performance, which is essentially ephemeral and time-based.
To create my work, I use photographic images culled from social media, art catalogues or magazines as a springboard to explore the subconscious. My work extends into performance, where time is a vital component. The physical act of painting and the temporal unfolding of the work prioritise process over product. The work conveys an awareness of its own making over time, perhaps even inviting a performative viewing.
Working primarily on heavy paper, largely on the floor, each painting is typically completed within two hours. Vibrant, linear brushstrokes interplay with broad sweeps of bright or evocative colour. I insist on raw sensation, touch, and movement over explicit narrative or detailed representation.
I strive for an expansive understanding of what painting can be, continually exploring contemporary practice through dialogue with historical precedents. The viewer is invited to explore the interdisciplinary crossroads between performance art and picture making, to consider the making of the art as part of its meaning and to view the work as the enduring trace of a performative act.
