Biography
Having graduated from Dartington College of Arts with a BA(Hons) in Writing (Contemporary Practices) in 2006 Nick worked steadily to establish himself as an artist and performer from a base in the Midlands. In 2009 he moved to Edinburgh to continue his artistic development.
Immediately after university Nick primarily worked with words and visual installations, under the pseudonym Jeb Rand, to try to produce work that could be considered as an extended ‘book’, whether it be a stand alone piece of art, several pieces that create a whole piece or actual page-based writing. This was done through works on canvas, acrylics, wood, heat and paper, depending on the piece, and resulted with performances in Enterprise 08 at The Space, London and Ashby de la Zouch Arts Festival and also as a part of OVADA’s Nightfair Before Christmas in Oxford.
Over eighteen months Nick developed his technique as a painter through work with abstract landscapes. There is an inescapable soft element to landscape painting that exists traditionally and the juxtaposition and contradiction between the hard lines and the subtlety of landscape is Nick’s unique contemporary take on the art form. This confusion comes from taking influences and references from the Renaissance painters, the work of artists such as Rothko and Pollock, the landscape painting of Kurt Jackson, Matt Forster and David Prentice and Russian artists working in the Rayonism school combined together with a view to produce contemporary, exciting British landscapes. This period of work concluded in the solo exhibition ‘Britain Abstracted’ at Said Business School, Oxford as part of Oxfordshire Artweeks.
As a musician Nick has toured with a successful folk band and a less successful comedy band up and down the country. As an artist and writer Nick takes influence from everything from Arthur Matthews and Jasper Fforde to Edgar Allen Poe and John Cooper Clarke; his work varies between the macabre and the comedic making it very hard to pigeon-hole this self-proclaimed renegade Morris dancing artist.
Nick is currently working on his first novel.
EXHIBITIONS
‘Britain Abstracted’
- Solo Exhibition, Saïd Business School, Oxford – May 2009
‘A Cup Of Tea’
- Art Of The Everyday, The Art Works Galleries, Newcastle – April 2009
‘Mother Earth’
- Flash Mob Art, Birmingham – August 2008
‘Creation Of Wealth’
- Birmingham Visual Arts Coalition Exhibition 1, The Works Gallery, Birmingham – June 2008
‘In The Spotlight’
- Projected Text, Dartington College of Arts, Devon – October 2004
‘Piney Wood’
- Folding Books, Dartington College of Arts, Devon – April 2004
SOLO PERFORMANCES
‘Never Heard That One Before’
- Ashby De La Zouch Arts Festival, Leicestershire – August 2008
- Enterprise 08, The Space, London – March 2008 x 2
‘Beginning/Middle/End’
- Nightfair Before Christmas, OVADA, Oxford – December 2007
‘Englishness: The Brand’
- Contexture 06, Dartington College of Arts, Devon – June 2006