Nick Weber

"Ask Alice" contemporary realist portrait in colorful abstract oil painting

2023

Nick Weber (b.1971), living and painting in Springs, NY (about a block away from Jackson Pollack’s studio), has been building on and away from his classical training since he moved there in 1995. Weber’s paintings are atmospheric and painterly; figurative and abstract; simple and complex; beautiful and sometimes political. His working process demonstrates a deep understanding of how great images have been made throughout art history. Expertly drawing and painting from life is enough for most artists, but Weber pushes on from there. Grounded in drawing, Weber uses a multi-layered process of drawing, painting, and printing. In an interesting twist, he has originated a new form of mono-printing. To extract the most value out of the time-consuming practice of capturing a perfect likeness of his subjects, Weber decided to paint oil directly onto plastic wrap. He takes this image on the thin layer of plastic wrap and presses it into ongoing abstract compositions, as well as more traditional setting for a portrait or figurative work. As a result, we see the same face or figure cropping up in multiple works, or in the same work multiple time–with varying degrees of vividity. The overall effect is an intriguing blend of classical and contemporary, serious figurative art and whimsical colorful abstraction. Weber is able to weave his natural humanistic tendencies into and onto pure abstraction all the while tapping into an astute observation of his contemporaries and the current tenet of beauty. Underlying Weber’s work, we sense him investigating themes of the power relationship between the viewer and the viewed as well as the subject’s textured history of struggle, dignity, and strength. Weber presents a colorful oeuvre that is both introspective yet sincerely curious about his surroundings and subjects. A recurring theme that swizzles through his work is that of the muse and the artist, and the woman as goddess. Classical canons of beauty mash up with contemporary images of beauty and youth, set in idyllic East End landscapes, fantastical landscapes from Renaissance paintings, or pure abstraction of color pattern and light. A sense of levity and a wink of humor peek through, as do sudden bursts of color. Weber has exhibited mostly in the Northeast, with recent exhibitions at Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor, Harper’s Apartment in New York, NY, Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, NY, Tripoli Gallery in Southampton, NY, and Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton, NY. His works are included in significant private collections in the United States and abroad. List of private collectors includes luminaries such as Richard Prince, Lisa de Kooning, Bernard & Almine Ruiz-Piccasso, Betsy Johnson, Knight Landesman, Jennifer Coolidge, Sean Penn, Phil and Shelley Aarons, John McWhinnie, and many others.