By Emilia Novak
From Graffiti to the Gallery
Born in 1980 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Nicolas Party began his artistic path not in formal studios, but on city walls. As a teenager, he was part of a tight-knit graffiti scene, painting murals under cover of night and occasionally facing the consequences. “It’s fun, but spending nights in jail gets old,” he later remarked. By 21, Party left graffiti behind to pursue formal studies, first at the Lausanne School of Art, then earning an MFA at Glasgow School of Art. What followed was a journey through eras and geographies—Glasgow, Brussels, New York—each deepening his relationship with art history.
Party’s practice straddles past and present. He draws from Renaissance frescoes, 19th-century Swiss landscapes, Rococo pastelists like Rosalba Carriera, and Surrealist masters such as René Magritte. His preferred medium, soft pastel, has barely changed since the 18th century. Using it today is almost anachronistic, yet Party embraces its physicality and history to create bold, contemporary images that feel both luminous and surreal.
Critics and curators have noted how pastel gives Party’s work an unusual richness: velvety surfaces, pure pigment, and a matte glow that resists photographic translation. His still lifes, portraits, and landscapes, while traditional in subject, feel entirely of this moment. He has revived pastel as a serious, even radical medium, fusing deep art-historical knowledge with modern energy.
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