Statement - Images - Bio

In the North Gallery: Nick Lawrence

For his solo show SECOND LIFE: recent paintings, Nick Lawrence will present a new body of work exploring the issues and consequences that arise from leading a double life. Lawrence takes his cue from the internet game Second Life, where ‘players’ can create their own identities and operate within an advanced virtual network. Lawrence himself can be described as living in dual worlds, as a long-time artist and a leading gallerist. By developing his abstract, sometimes figurative canvases, he investigates how these separate realities collide and intersect. We see how two entities - the real world and the imaginary – communicate through his use of symbols and materials.

In “Can I get a Witness”, two symbols border the more abstract central composition illustrating communication reduced to its essential components. The object on the right could depict a thought bubble, the object on the left, an ear or a hand; juxtaposed in between - a painting within a painting – is a more loosely-applied black ink tableau representing a window into another world created by the artist.

Lawrence’s paintings, whose themes oscillate between the whimsical and the aggressive, employ a myriad of ingredients such as tar, sand, house paint, cloth, rope, paper and shellac. His narratives make their appearance by way of personal vocabulary, witty figuration, and conflicting textures. The SECOND LIFE works are a continuation of his “Bloopers” series exhibited in 2006 at ATM Gallery, NYC, but in these new creations, the painter has arrived at a possible aura of tranquility. Though his Art Brut and Australian aboriginal influences are still present, some of the heavy brushstrokes of earlier works are replaced with more reflective, subtle gestures, suggesting Lawrence may have reconciled his two realities.

Nick Lawrence is the founder and owner of Freight + Volume, a contemporary space in New York as well as a long-time owner/director of DNA Gallery in Provincetown. Lawrence has exhibited widely throughout the US and Europe, and his work has been featured in Artnet, Brooklyn Rail, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, LA Weekly, and California Art Week.

Lawrence is a recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including an NEA Works on Paper Fellowship, a Massachusetts Artist Foundation Grant, and a scholarship from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He holds a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College, and did graduate work at the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford, England. He is also the author and artist of numerous limited-edition books.

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b. 1960, Boston, MA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 “Bloopers, Gaffes and other Rough Patches” ATM Gallery, New York, New York
2003 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2000 Barbara Singer Fine Art, Cambridge, MA
1998 “Allegories” Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1997 Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “The Harvest Series” Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA Cherrystone Gallery, Wellfleet, MA
1995 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1994 DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1993 Provincetown Group Gallery, Provincetown, MA Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
1992 “Genaesthetics” Gallery Equus, Boston, MA
1991 “Nuclear Icon Series” William-Lamb Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “Nuclear Icons” Gallery 57, Cambridge Art Council, Cambridge, MA
1990 “Salon Noir” French Library of Boston, Boston, MA
1989 Metropolitan Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA Ports Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Area Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME
1988 Alligator Gallery / Fobbo Gallery, San Francisco, CA Mills Gallery and Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
1987 White Street Gallery, Key West, FL Jus de Pomme Gallery, New York, New York “Palm-Wine Drinkard” Van Buren / Brazelton / Cutting Gallery, Cambridge, MA, performance
1986 “Channels” Gallery 52, Boston, MA Boston for the World, Quincy Market, Boston, MA Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA
1985 Northlight Studio, Boston, MA “Marine Life” Gallery 52, Boston, MA
1984 Gallery 52, Boston, MA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007 “Art of the Deal”, Kantor Feuer window, New York, NY
2005 Flying Space, Sag Harbor, NY “Sight Specific” DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2004 “Feast or Famine” DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2002 “Couples” DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA Perimeter Gallery, Belfast, ME
1998 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA “Pierogi 2000”, Traveling Drawing Portfolio, Brooklyn, NY
1997 “Drawing Show”, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles, CA Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA New Image Art Gallery, West Hollywood, CA Cherrystone Gallery, Wellfleet, MA
1996 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1995 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA “Re-Generation” DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1994 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1993 “The New Expressionist”, Gallery Equus, Boston, MA Provincetown Group Gallery, Provincetown, MA “Monotypes for New and Selected Poems by Lloyd Van Brunt”, The Smith Publishers, Boston, MA
1992 “Anything But Paper Prayers”, Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, MA Gallery Equus, Boston, MA “A-Men”, Gallery Miu, Boston, MA
1991 “Nuclear Solstice” (curator), Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
1990 “Artcetera Auction”, AIDS Action Committee, Boston, MA “Triennial: A Survey of Boston Artists”, curator: Peter Baldaia, Fuller Museum of Art, Boston, MA
1989 Boston Center for The Arts, Cyclorama: Installation for Sugar Plum Festival “WITHIN 1989”, Boston Center for The Arts (cur. Arthur Dion) Galerie Horloge, Paris, France “Very Special Arts” Auction, benefit for Disabled Artists worldwide, Washington, D.C. Zero One Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1988 “Fellowship II, Cityspace”, Artists Foundation, Boston, MA “Drawing Show”, Akin Gallery, Boston
1987 Akin Gallery, Boston, MA Inaugural Group Show “Assembled”, Mills Gallery, 3-Dimensional Work “Micro-Show” Now Gallery, New York, NY
1986 “Figures and Faces” Cambridge Art Association (juried show) Stage sets painted for “St. Joan” (Huntington Theatre) and “The Christmas Revels” (Sanders Theatre) “Bridges”, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (cur. Margaret Reeve) Gallery 52: Summer Show “River Spirits”, Cambridge River Festival, masks and costumes for Grand Parade (with Arts Council grant)
1985 “Out of the Fogg”, Project Arts Center, Cambridge, MA (curator) “Games People Play”, Faneuil Gallery, Mass General Hospital (cur. Maria Friedrich) “Shelter”, Harvard Graduate School of Design (cur. Margaret Reeve)

AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
Contemporary Artist’s Center, North Adams, MA, 1998 Millay Colony, Artist’s Residency, Austerlitz, NY, 1998 Virginia Center for the Arts Residency, 1993, 1997 NEA / NEFA Fellowship, Works on Paper / NEA Visual Arts Fellowship Archive at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, 1996 Exchange Fellowship in Moscow, Russia, sponsored by the VCCA, 1993 Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency, New Smyrna Beach, FL Blue Mountain Center for the Arts, Residency, Blue Mountain, NY, 1991 Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, Artist Foundation Fellowship in Drawing, 1987 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Art Scholarship, Skowhegan, ME, 1983 Resident Artist, Sequoia National Forest, CA 1983 Senior Fellow, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1982

EDUCATION
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, England, 1983-1984
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME, 1983
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, Bachelor of Arts, Visual / Environmental Studies, 1982

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sag Harbor News, June 2005 L.A. Weekly, January 1997, “Picks of the Week”, Peter Frank Art New England, May 1992, “New Gallery Review”, Miles Unger California Art Week, 1991, “Between Fire and Water” The Boston Globe, July 1991, “Passion Fuels Nuclear Solstice”, Nancy Stapen South End News, July 1991, “Explosive Words”, Cate McQuaid Bay Windows, July 1991, “Impending Doom”, Shawn Hill The Boston Herald, October 1990, “Artist Paints the Town” Channel 5, Boston, Six o’ Clock News, “End of Decade Celebration”, December 1990 South End News, January, March 1988 Boston Globe, Critics’ Tip, Boston Phoenix, January 1987 Key West Citizen, March 1987 Boston Phoenix, February 1986, January 1987 Boston Globe, Critics’ Tips, June, October 1985, January 1987 Articles in Boston Globe, Boston Tab, Boston Ledger, Boston Business Journal, Beacon Hill News, 1985: “Banned In Boston” Stuff Magazine, “Objets”, 1984

WORK AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2003-present Founder, owner, Freight and Volume Gallery, New York, NY
2000-2005 Co-founder, co-owner, LFL Gallery, New York, NY
1994-present Owner/ Curator, DNA Gallery Inc, Provincetown, MA
1988-present Owner, Nick’s Moving Co., Cambridge, MA
1984-1989 Princeton Review, College Board tutoring, verbal instructor
1986 Children’s Studio School, Washington, D.C., Visiting Artist
1986 Walnut Hill School, Visiting Artist
1984-1985 Project Arts Center, painting and sculpture, age 4-13
1983 Resident Artist, Sequoia National Forest, CA

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Britt Pearlman-Ahlfert, Cambridge, Massachusetts The Boston Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts T. Berry Brazelton, Cambridge, Massachusetts Harold Bursztajn, M.D., Cambridge, Massachusetts Harlow Carpenter, Essex, New Hampshire Lawrence Coolidge, Boston, Massachusetts Vincent Deportiere, Belgium Ralph Falls, North Carolina Richard Gass, Boston, Massachusetts William Gonder, Long Island, New York Albert and Tipper Gore Jeffrey Katz, Boston, Massachusetts Gerald Gillerman, Esq. Cambridge, Massachusetts Giselle Held, New York, New York Holt Associates, Cambridge, Massachusetts Nick Ludington, Palisade, New York Fredrick Magnus, Clifton, New Jersey Jonathan Marvel, New York, New York Jayne Anne Phillips, Brookline, Massachusetts Borja Portabella, Barcelona, Spain Guido Rahr, Minneapolis, Minnesota Robert Remis, Boston, Massachusetts John Stockwell, Sweden

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