Nicholas Ives is a contemporary artist based in Melbourne, Australia
He has held numerous solo & group exhibitions within Australia and internationally, and has been selected in national awards & received private and public commissions.
Current doctoral research explores fatherhood within a contemporary studio painting field, incorporating storytelling and daily rituals.
My works are human-scaled, at times intimate, explorative and personal, with heavy importance on the material and felt aspects the painting process. Time allows the pieces to change and fluctuate. There’s a rapture and absurdity to making these paintings, revealing an ebb and flow of studio process. I approach my practice as something that is elusive and ambigous and evolving, and operates between the fluid nature of paint and fluid memory. I find that incidents and experiences within painting articulate multiple possibilities; painting is the mid-state of an event that operates with infinite divergence… as an experiential travelling towards a multitude of moments both past, present and future.
CV
2024 – 2027 (expected) PhD Fine Art(Research) Monash University
2003-2005 Master Of Fine Art (Research) Monash University
2001 Bachelor of Fine Art (HONS 1st class) Monash University
1998-2000 Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) Monash University
Awards & Commissions
2018 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (finalist)
2016 ArtBox Commission (recipient)
2015 Ronald Greenaway Artist Commission (recipient)
2015 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (finalist)
2013 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (semi-finalist)
Publications:
2025 ‘Collecting : Living with Art’ Thames & Hudson
2023 ‘Saturn Devours’ Catalogue Essay, Andrew Paul Wood
2022 ‘Natural Intensities’ Catalogue Essay, Andrew Paul Wood
2021 Editorial ‘Vault Magazine’
2021 ‘The Crudes’ Catalogue Essay, Andrew Paul Wood
2019 ‘For Laughter’s Sake’ Catalogue Essay, Andrew Paul Wood
2018 ‘A busy summer of art in Matakana’ Artnews New Zealand
2017 ‘All the things we see now will soon be gone forever and the things we can’t see
will remain forever’ Art + Australia, Simon Pericich
2016 ‘Under the Radar’ Australian Art Collector
2015 ‘Around the Galleries’ Dan Rule, The Age, Melbourne
2013 ‘Puny Humans’ Self Published
2011. ‘The Rest is Silence’ Death Be Kind 2009-2011, E.Richardson, C.Lambe
2011 ‘Welcome to Paradise’ Paradise Hills Gallery 2011
Exhibitions: Solo :
2024 Home Sweet Home Oigall Projects, Melbourne AUS
2023 Small Intensities Oigall Projects, Melbourne AUS
2023 Saturn Devouring Oigall Projects, Melbourne AUS
2022 Natural Intensities Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland NZ
2022 Youth’s Ephemera Vaulted Treasures, Blackartprojects, Melbourne AUS
2021 The Crudes Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland NZ
2020 Sunset Roads II : Breaking Dawn Blackartprojects, Melbourne AUS
2020 Sunset Roads Blackartprojects, Melbourne AUS
2019 The Worlds of Quinn Mallory The Vivian, Auckland NZ
2018 New Skin for an Old Ceremony The Vivian, Auckland NZ
2017 An arbitrary device in the belly of a whale Fort Delta, Melbourne AUS
2016 Smile Fort Delta, Melbourne AUS
2015 Moonface Stockroom, Kyneton AUS
2014 Holy $#!T Rubicon ARI, Nth Melbourne AUS
2013 Puny Humans Blender Studios, Melbourne AUS
2011 I am flying through boundless space Paradise Hills, Richmond AUS
2010 In Anticipation of Rotten Teeth Trocadero, Footscray AUS
2009 A River of Dead Men SUB12, Substation Newport AUS
2009 Escaping The Cage Shifted, Richmond AUS
2006 Looking at Things Viewing Space, Melbourne AUS
2005 Semantics, Pranks & Acrobatics Monash Faculty Gallery, Monash Caulfield,
AUS
Exhibitions: Group :
2026 New Old School MRAG, Maitland, AUS (Upcoming)
2025 Puppets, Everybody Loves Puppets Oigall Projects, Melbourne AUS (Upcoming)
2025 Horny Jail 2 Nasha Gallery, SydneyAUS
2025 VIP Presentation – Melbourne Art Fair, Oigall Projects, Melbourne AUS
2025 Its Not Dead, Its Just Resting Scott Lawrie Gallery, Edinburgh UK
2024 If the zoo bans me from hollering at the animals then I will face god and
walk backwards into hell Oigall Projects, Melbourne AU
2023 Unearthly Delights {Suite}, Auckland NZ
2022 Sensation_22 Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland NZ
2022 Don’t Blame Me, When You’re Train Gets Lost Kingston Arts, Moorabbin AUS
2021 Sydney Contemporary Blackartprojects, Sydney AUS
2021 Spring1883 Blackartprojects, Melbourne AUS
2021 Don’t Blame Me, When You’re Train Gets Lost Stockroom, Kyneton AUS
2019 Spring 1883 The Establishment, Sydney AUS
2019 Towards the Forest The Vivian, Auckland NZ
2018 Ghosts of Electricity Smoke the Moon, Los Angeles USA
2018 Crocodility Bundoora Homestead, Bundoora AUS
2016 Slippery Stories Durden & Ray, Los Angeles USA
2016 Slippery Stories Strange Neighbour, Melbourne AUS
2015 Other Side Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, AUS
2015 Ronald Greenaway – Artist and his world Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn AUS
2015 Future Process Artereal Gallery, Rozelle AUS
2015 So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness Tristian Keonig, Melbourne AUS
2014 Either Side James Makin Gallery, Collingwood AUS
2014 Street and Art Collide Shoalhaven Art Centre, Nowra AUS
2014 Lateral Liminal Monday Week, Carlton AUS
2013 Small Works James Makin Gallery, Collingwood AUS
2013 Static Shift James Makin Gallery, Collingwood AUS
2012 Dark Matter_Dark Energy Stockroom, Kyneton AUS
2012 2nd Birthday Fundraiser Paradise Hills, Richmond AUS
2012 Confine Dark Horse Experiment, Melbourne AUS
2012 Skin : Contemporary Portraits Poimena Gallery, Launceston, AUS
2012 Us and Them Dark Horse Experiment, Melbourne AUS
2011 The Rest is Silence Death Be Kind, Brunswick AUS
2011 1st Birthday Fundraiser Paradise Hills, Richmond AUS
2010 Kings x Kings Kings ARI, Melbourne AUS
2010 The Outsider Trocadero, Footscray AUS
2009 Off The Wall Exhibition Buildings, Carlton AUS
2009 Dappled Cities Launch, Self Storage, Richmond AUS
2008 New Directions Karstens Gallery at QC, Melbourne AUS
2008 Real Estate Edward St, Brunswick VIC
2007 ANL Maritime Art Prize Mission to Seafarers, Docklands AUS
2004 Neoteric Atmosphere The Foundry, Fitzroy AUS
2003 Stir Gamma Space, Melbourne AUS
2002 New Emerging Artists Mira Fine Art, Melbourne AUS
2002 Repetition Red Box Gallery, Collingwood AUS
2001 Price Check on Fresh Produce Monash University, Caulfield AUS
2000 Fast Lane Exit Monash University, Caulfield AUS