Nigel Mullins: Mass Gatherings
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.
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.