NIGEL MULLINS
NIGEL MULLINS, Gay Pride, Sao Paulo
Oil on canvas, 120 x 180 cm
Nigel Mullins’ paintings achieve immediacy and presence through the artist’s thick impasto and use of colour. The paintings take on an almost sculptural quality due to the thick application of paint and Mullins’ tendency to embellish and distress the frames of the works. His work explores the cultural significance of the icon in all its forms, and how cultural iconography has developed from before the Renaissance to the seminal moments of the 20th century.
Mullins has become known for his vivid and compelling scenes of recent and historic gatherings that have become momentous and iconic. His painterly exploration of these crowd scenes makes use of sumptuous impasto, veering between figuration and abstraction. Some of their power lies in their ability to capture the Instagram-able images of mass gatherings that characterise our era. The canvases, with their vertiginous vantage point and lashings of paint, both sensual and viscous, give the sensation of soaring above the crowd.
Mullins’ work has been represented in art fairs in Africa and Europe as well as Mumia International Underground Animation Festival, Brazil. His work is held in public and private collections in South Africa, the UK and Europe.
NIGEL MULLINS, Natural Progression
100 x 150 cm
Nigel Mullins’ painterly exploration makes use of sumptuous impasto, veering between figuration and abstraction without restraint. The artist applies his material as libations covering a sacred artefact or an amulet: fetishistically. The paint, dense in meaning and referential value, thickly covers the support as it alters and constructs. This explicitly references the painting as a thing; a support to which meaning (as material) is applied often in layers and over an expanse of time.
NIGEL MULLINS, Natural Progression II
100 x 150 cm
Nigel Mullins’ painterly exploration makes use of sumptuous impasto, veering between figuration and abstraction without restraint. The artist applies his material as libations covering a sacred artefact or an amulet: fetishistically. The paint, dense in meaning and referential value, thickly covers the support as it alters and constructs. This explicitly references the painting as a thing; a support to which meaning (as material) is applied often in layers and over an expanse of time.
NIGEL MULLINS, Pragmatic, Jubilant, Organised
Oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm (39 1/4 x 59 in.)
Nigel Mullins perceives his abstract works to be consoling and energizing structures. ‘These works are intended, at the simplest level, to activate a positive emotional state on entering the exhibition in a similar way to how stained glass windows in cathedrals may open one up to a state of contemplation,’ says Mullins. 'They do, however, also work as a positive visual metaphor for human endeavour [...] The act of compiling a series of colours and marks on a canvas is for me, a minimalist meditation on the nature of human constructs, both physical and social. The paintings, like culture, are the result of the accrual of choices, order, chaos and chance.’
Nigel Mullins has had numerous solo exhibitions in South Africa, the UK and Germany and has taken part in some 50 group shows. His work has been represented at the Cape Town, Johannesburg, Frankfurt and London art fairs and on the Mumia International Underground Animation Festival, Brazil. Mullins work is held in public and private collections in South Africa, the UK and Europe.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.