Portrait With Shells, 2021

The contemporary painter, installation artist, and sculptor, Nicholas Party, is most well-known for the critically acclaimed way in which he unites a disquieting form of representation with otherwise soothing pastel colors and flowing, simplified organic shapes. Although his works characteristically feature sharp demarcations between the various subjects and elements of his compositions, they nevertheless reflect his early interest in graffiti art, exhibiting an air-brushed quality.

His landscapes feature highly stylized, abstracted depictions of trees, shrubs, and other flora, which are reminiscent of both Félix Vallotton's unemotional landscapes and Theodor Seuss Geisel's well-known illustrations. 

With respect to his portraits, Nicholas Party's figures appear both imposing and yet supple, owing to his skilled use of shading. Although irrealist in form, his subjects often stare out from the canvass with wide, penetrating eyes, much in the manner of Ferdinand Hodler's realist portraits. By denuding his own subjects of the detail associated with realist representations and depicting them as androgenous, Party's subjects appear uncanny and intense—features which are exacerbated by his use of solid backgrounds and the unusual perspective imposed upon them.