Jack Nichols Bio

Taos NM / Austin TX
by appointment

BORN TEXAS FEBRUARY 9, 1953
                       (40th DAY OF THE YEAR)

1981-1984
EXCLUSIVELY REPRESENTING THE ART ESTATE OF WARREN DAVIS (1932-1974), Inadvertently WAS THE CATALYST TO MY PERSONAL CAREER AS AN ARTIST. THIS SECOND GENERATION ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST, WAS INFLUENCED BY FRIENDS WILLEM DEKOONING AND MARK ROTHKO.
MY EXTENSIVE INVOLVEMENT WITH THE WARREN DAVIS ART ESTATE, SMITHSONIAN, AND many OTHER Museums Inspired A DEEP PASSION FOR artistry, as well as the metaphysical relationships to the finite world around us.

"TURN OF THE CENTURY ARTIST" 1985 - 2011

there is a point where you are no longer observing an image of some “thing,”
the painting becomes “the thing itself."Knowing, even in chaos or the frenetic release of energy, can have a sublime balance at certain moments. where elements of abstraction, fractals, the collage impact of unrecognized images, occur as random, changing to light and distance--

              excerpts / critiques

YOU SELDOM FIND COMPLEXITY AND CLARITY IN THE SAME IMAGE...
                                                   -RC ISRAEL 2011 ART GURU TAOS / SANTA FE, NM

THE PAINTINGS REVEALED BOLD, ADVENTUROUS, AND SPIRITED SPONTANEOUS USE OF COLOR, SHAPE, AND LINE. THERE WERE NO LABORIOUS ATTEMPTS AT TECHNIQUE OR TRADITIONAL IMAGERY. IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT HE HAD ASSESSED THE MAELSTROM AND LEGACY OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LEAPING HEADLONG INTO A PROLIFIC PRODUCTIVITY.
                             -RALPH WHITE 1921-2004
                                        PROFESSOR EMERITUS UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN    8/95


A GREAT SHOW- INSPIRATIONAL AND ENDURING! STAY WITH IT! THE WORLD OF ART NEEDS YOU!
                             -GORDON PARKS 1912-2006        11/11/95 NYC

WHEN I FIRST ARRIVED AT YOUR SHOW, I SAID TO MYSELF, WOW! I SAW PAINTINGS I REALLY FELT AND COULD IDENTIFY WITH...

                            -HERBERT GENTRY 1919-2003       11/30/95 NYC/ FRANCE


In short, the paintings of Jack Nichols are icons of energy - the energy of the man himself, and by inference, the pervasive energy of the universe.
Early on, Nichols - by nature bent, not by some cool rationality, found himself in the crossroads and gale of abstract expressionism. He sensed a resonance with the works of Pollock to Franz Kline, and others of the New York School and was moved to find ways to give visual form to his own aesthetic experience.
The result, to date, has been rich and various - an extensive number of small and large paintings, mostly in acrylic of arresting quality. How to characterize these is no simple task. Still, there are some things this writer can risk saying about them:
They reflect the freedom of the autodidact;
They document the direction of post-modern art; They exist as statements of a gifted man finding his ways to exude the energy of his personal quest…and they are beautiful records of that quest.   2/22/04
                                 -Donald L. Weismann 1914-2007
                                             Past Member, National Council For The Arts
                                  (Appointment by President Johnson)

NO TIMID STROKES HERE. WHIMSICAL IMAGINATIVE, EVEN MYSTERIOUS, HIS WORK EVOKES CURIOSITY IN THE VIEWER TO LOOK BEYOND AND SEEK INNER MEANING, AND THE ENERGY OF EXPLORATION TURNED INWARD CAN BE PERSONALLY REVEALING OF BOTH ARTIST AND VIEWER. COLOR SELECTIONS ARE OUT OF THE ORDINARY, IMAGINATIVE AND CHALLENGING, SOMETIMES SOOTHING, USUALLY PROVOCATIVE. HIS STROKES ARE STRONG AND PUSHED WITH CONFIDENCE, FRENETIC, YET THE UNDERLYING FEEL IS THAT THE ARTIST KNOWS WHERE HE IS GOING. BOLD AND CHALLENGING, YET THE TEMPTATION TO DIVE IN AND GO EXPLORING IS ALWAYS THERE.
                                     -JEAN GREER 1991 ART CRITIC/ GALLERY OWNER

THE MOST ENERGY-DRIVEN WORKS IN AMERICA TODAY...
                                          -DAVID PARKS 2010   PHOTOGRAPHER / AUTHOR / DIRECTOR

____________________________________________________________________________________

PART OF THE UNIQUENESS OF THESE WORKS HAS GROWN OUT OF EXPERIMENTING WITH A SERIES OF NEW APPLICATION TECHNIQUES... Painting with both hands simultaneously & using brushes that are not rigid, allow colours to merge, giving more freedom to create with the visual impact generated by the rule of “simultaneous contrast.” Where there is the apparent change in colour, As placed against different coloured backgrounds...
[“Which is based on the fact that the eye automatically yearns for the complementary color of any given color and ‘creates it,’ if it is not available.” Susanna Partsch 1991 / Re: Paul Klee 1879-1940.]

Now, with twenty-six years as a contemporary painter, my original works only, hang in New York, London, Rome, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Houston, The Hamptons, Canada, Denver, Mexico City, Taos, and in collections of Dr. Paul Greengard, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, to Ron Brownstein, Stanley Hirsch , and Ron Rettner collections in Washington DC & New York.

Since arriving in Taos, New Mexico in 2007, it’s been a nonstop experience and experiment of channeling the energies of nature and sometimes the super-nature. Like a collaboration of the raw and powerful elements (spirits) that make up the history of this high-altitude location. The transformation has been exciting, yielding unique and sometimes fabulous new results.
Plus the closer you look the better. These paintings are not cropped left to right, top to bottom, deckled edges, one hundred percent of the image is there. (the same with the canvases)

To the best of my knowledge, neither Pollock, DeKooning, Rothko, or any artist of the New York School ever painted using the techniques I work with.   These methods did not exist when they were alive.

Continually influenced by the phenomenal energies of Taos, and moved by the peaceful assurance that these works are going to touch and perhaps inspire the viewer, certainly lightens the burden of performance and leaves all possibility and potential as unseen.
(a conduit to the surface)

Please see these works as energy generators from the future-- an eclectic collaboration of techniques with energies past and present.



"CREATING ANCESTRAL IMAGES FOR THE ANCESTORS... DOING WHAT I LOVE...TILL I COULD DO IT NO MORE"    JACK NICHOLS 1995

SCHEDULED / CURRENTLY:

GRATITUDE EXHIBIT 804 CONGRESS AVE. AUSTIN, TEXAS
DECEMBER 12 2007 THRU MAY 31 2008

EUROPE: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY "TRANSCENDING THE MILLENNIUM" (OPENING SPRING 2000) ~~cancelled~~

MINERAL HUNTERS STUDIO    /    114 COLE ST. DALLAS, TEXAS

EXHIBITS: 1990-2011

NEW YORK:
SARAH Y RENTSCHLER GALLERY (ONE MAN SHOW) "FROM LINEAR TO CIRCULAR INCLUSIVE" NOVEMBER 1995 PENTHOUSE, 450 WEST 24TH STREET (CHELSEA)

NEW YORK: SUTTON PLACE 403 EAST 57TH
NOVEMBER 1997 - DECEMBER 2011

AUSTIN:

OMNI HOTEL / THE AUSTIN CENTRE ATRIUM, 700 BRAZOS PASSIONATE CIRCLES
11' X 44 ' "ONE OF THE LARGEST STRETCHED CANVAS PAINTINGS IN THE WORLD"
1995 THRU 1999 (weight approx 600lbs)

LOMBARDI GALLERY 918 W. THIRD "STONEHENGE TO CAIRO / THE MILLENNIUM SERIES" (ONE MAN SHOW) DECEMBER 4, 1997 TO JANUARY 24, 1998

"THE END OF THE CENTURY " 1988 - 1999 (ONE MAN SHOW)
DOUGHERTY ART CENTER, 1110 BARTON SPRINGS (1-19-1999)

TOP OF THE MARC AND KATZ'S, (ONE MAN SHOW) 1992

TRUDY'S NORTH MAGNOLIA CAFE, TRUDY'S SOUTH 1993 (ONE MAN SHOW)

TEXAS COMMERCE BANK (DOWN TOWN) 1995 (ONE MAN SHOW)

ASTARTE 318 COLORADO, JANUARY-MAY 1996 (ONE MAN SHOW)

SHORE LINE GRILL @ FOUR SEASONS HOTEL NOVEMBER -JANUARY 1997 (ONE MAN SHOW)

CENTRAL MARKET "FUTURE IMAGES" APRIL 1997 (ONE MAN SHOW)

CEDAR STREET BAR JANUARY 1996 - JULY 1998 (ONE MAN SHOW)

LOMBARDI GALLERY 918 W. THIRD

IRON CACTUS CAFE 6TH AND TRINITY (ONE MAN SHOW)
NOVEMBER 1997 - JUNE 2000

ANTONE'S, 5TH AND LAVACA
OCTOBER 1997 - JUNE 1999

DALLAS:
CEDAR STREET BAR, ROUTH STREET OCTOBER 1996- JUNE 1998 (FORMERLY "BABY ROUTHS") (ONE MAN SHOW)

CLASSICS BY CBI SUITE 11018 DALLAS TRADE CENTER, DALLAS, TEXAS

MINERAL HUNTERS STUDIO / 104 COLE ST. DALLAS, TEXAS (ONE MAN SHOW)

HOUSTON:
MICHAEL PIE'LE (SHOW ROOM) HOUSTON DESIGN CENTER