About Nicolas Young

Nicolas Young was born in Surrey in 1952, but moved to Exeter two years later. Educated in Devon, Nick left in 1970 with an art A Level and headed for London.

Though Nick spent the next 20-or-so years playing and recording in bands, and holding jobs of all kinds, he kept up his painting as much as possible. Nick took part in exhibitions at London’s Camden Gallery in the 1970s.

In Brighton in 1993, following big changes in Nick's life, he redoubled his painting efforts and developed new styles. 

In 1998, he won the Sussex Open Individual Artist category prize. For Nick, this was an encouraging step, as more than 1,500 artists – some well-established – and a wealth of talent had entered their work into the exhibition, In the words of the judges, Nick’s paintings were the “least derivative”.

Nick is happy to be called an abstract surrealist, since he has always admired the many artists that fit under that banner.  Nick is interested in the tensions between chaos and order, flatness and depth, and technique and experimentation.

The preliminary idea for the paintings are sometimes drawn first, before experimentation takes place. 

Depending on how Nick is feeling, some paintings are allowed to flow on their own more than others. However, manipulation will take place sooner or later.

Nick is interested in the relationship between organic matter and mechanical creativity. The world itself is a place where the efforts of mankind are played out against the backdrop of nature. Sometimes, after working on a painting for some time, a new idea will suddenly come into mind. This makes the process even more exciting.

Nicks paintings often feel like part of something bigger. In some of his works, Nick instigates a circle within the centre. The circle evokes all kinds of imagery about the world, life, death, and eternity. The surrealist idea of the subconscious influence also plays its occasional part.

Some of Nick’s works feature small grey figures, loosely based on the shapes of his daughters. The control exerted by the figures on their environment is ambiguous, begging the question of how much we control nature – or how much nature controls us. 

Other works have raised wood relief shapes. The works are not shown in any particular date order.

Viewers must open their own minds and make their own decisions about what it is they see. Like or dislike the paintings, Nick’s only desire is that the next time people look, they see something new.