Christian Nicolson
Contemporary Pop and Landscape Artist
Christian Nicolson is a contemporary abstract artist and installation artist specialising in NZ landscape paintings and NZ pop art. Based in Auckland, Christian is renowned for his free and colourful beach and surfing scenes, and for the joyful nostalgia of his pop art celebrating film and music icons from different decades.
Exhibitions
Bio
Christian Nicolson is a contemporary abstract artist from Auckland, New Zealand. In his pop art, Christian has the unique ability to capture memory in a way that is both nostalgic and joyful. His style is at times subtle, comical, and personal, compared with other pop art that may be more cliched or appropriative. Meanwhile, his landscape paintings evoke feelings of joy and freedom, celebrating Aotearoa New Zealand's incredible surfing beaches.
Speaking to his love of the great outdoors, Christian’s surfing and contemporary beach painting comes from his own experiences exploring Aotearoa’s coast lines in the North and South Islands. His abstract modern art paintings and sculptures are inspired by his childhood memories, film and music media of different decades, and festivals and famous people from the past. Christian's artwork touches the nostalgia nerve within a wide variety of ages, inviting us to remember the golden years in all their glory.
I like to be creative in as many ways as possible. Whatever it is to get across my idea and explore what I am doing. I make sculptures. I do large installations in the landscape. I use photography, paint, screen printing, have a rock band, I make videos and film. This is the way I want to continue. I pride myself in doing different things.
Christian has a diploma in design (Visual Communications) from Unitec in Auckland. He worked as a designer directing ads, magazines, and logos for several years before leaving that work to follow his dream and become a full-time artist.
For a conceptual artwork, Christian begins with idea and composition. He then searches for hours for the type of images that will support this composition. Mostly they are a mix of images taken from online and his own drawings. He then uses a coarse screen (like the old fashioned newspaper screen of 60 dots per inch) to transpose the image over his painting technique. This process is reminiscent of comic book artworks from the 60's and 70's. Actual painting starts in the beginning and is applied throughout the entire process. The final piece of pop art contains layers upon layers of painting, design, and screen printing, often with some oil pastel stick as the final layer.
Christian continues to be remembered for some of his more daring artistic endeavours. This includes his “Toetoe” installation series placed in several iconic Auckland locations, including in Auckland City Harbour (with the tide coming in!). Today, alongside his contemporary art followers, collectors, and investors, Christian has a small fanbase as a result of his feature film, This Papier Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy (2016), for which he won a number of international film festival awards.
Christian has been represented by Art by the Sea Gallery since 2006. He is a prolific artist and has had many, highly successful exhibitions in our gallery. He has also appeared in public exhibitions and sculpture symposiums across the country. Christian has produced art on commission and continues to be available for such work. His work is held in many private collections, including the Wallace Trust which has over 40 of his pieces.
Art for me is a passion. Sometimes pure instinct, sometimes quite structured, but usually it’s a fairly organic process. It makes me feel good to express myself. And it’s great to be able to share that with others. Thank you for the love.