Like many modern artists, Nicholas Kashian is a researcher, he explores the nature of art. But his search goes beyond that, he is concerned with the essence of beauty. He asks: how can beauty be defined today, and how can I represent it? „Beauty in this case,“ he hastens to say, „can be very nasty or shocking or dull, but somehow it resonates honesty about human nature and our environment.“ His tools for reaching this goal are „image making and the transformation of matter.“

He pursues this goal with great serenity, observing the world with open, curious eyes, always ready to marvel. A tree, a stripper or a village in the Alps are as valuable as an Italian landscape or Piranesi’s nested dungeon architecture. His path is by no means without risks, every now and then he has to face some turbulence while changing his ways of expression, his „style“.

Nicholas’ composure might be seen as typically American – indeed, being born in the town of Bloomington, Illinois, he is rooted America’s heartland. He began his studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, the second largest college in the US, and continued in Chicago. Finally, in 2009 his curiosity about European culture drove him to Berlin.

Since childhood he has been familiar with art, this might be another reason for his composure. His father is an artist, too, „and I was in and around painters’ studios from the beginning of my life. I do feel the most confidence and pleasure moving paint around.“ In a very natural way he has been free to try many directions, be it content, style or technique. Initially, his motifs came from everyday life, there are shoeshine boys, scenes from bars or children’s birthday parties, and many references to popular art. His quest for beauty finally drew him from figuration „towards more ambiguous, blatantly abstract and open-ended works that seem to want to define painting as a pure, visual language.“

Nicholas Kashian’s search is not targeted at a specific, the one and only „right“ abstract expression; instead, he wants to keep his openness and curiosity. Our selection of paintings demonstrates the creative variety within a short period of time, the year 2013, supplemented by a recent work. „What is important,“ the artist remarks, „is to be present, to be sensitive, sincere, focused, open and as powerful as possible. The work is thus finished when either it says it’s done or I abandon it and take to working on something new.“

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Please view the artist’s work in our exhibition Painterly Abstractions: The Grand Gesture.

Biography

Born: 1980, Bloomington, Illinois, USA

Education

Selected EXHIBITIONS

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

AWARDS, PROJECTS