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About

Nina Garstang is an abstract painter experimenting with enamel paints and other chemicals on to glass creating internal and universal landscapes. 'I am in wonder of the connection of the repeated symmetry of forms found in nature, from the universe to our own physiology'. The glass acts as a mirror mimicking the screens of our phones to reflect the viewer, so they may see themselves in the bigger picture. These paintings highlight humanities disruptive impact on nature and altered states in our bodies through chemical imbalance. Her paintings work with light, either in the form of refraction using daylight through the glass or lit from behind as a lightboxes. 

“The colours hit me up with their intensity, like chemicals chasing through my blood. It’s a visceral thing at first and then meaning emerges: I get rivers, seas and mountains, then into cells under microscopes, maps of the earth from space bleeding into brains and embryos, soft tissues and weather systems all on a single sheet of glass, yet it is still. I’m getting flashes of old masters too, like faces and scenes from other things I’ve seen dissolving away from me.” Author & Poet Richard Lewis’s 

Garstang's paintings contemplates the middle ground between what is real and what is not, pushing the view of the objects she paints to the point where they lose their identity, thus revealing an altered view, that could be looking to the universe or travelling deep inside the body. Pondering the medium of paint, exploring: the quality and viscosity of paint itself; what it means to paint in an increasingly virtual world and the psychological experience of creating a painting. Flirting with the idea of Rorschach cards and likening the state of mind to that of theta brain wave state.

 

While studying her MA in Painting she explored different media, which was a journey to realize a different view for her painting practice. Most of the works during that period were experimental, looking closely at the light, medium and act of painting itself, often realized in video installations and exhibiting live painting experiments.  A dreamy investigation of what it is to be human.

 

Nina is a Royal College of Art post graduate visual artist, having exhibited nationally and internationally, highlights include ‘London Art’ fair in Chelsea, Scope Miami and Paradise, RCA Milan Fine Art meets Design for Milan Design week. She has work in the private collections of Alex de Brye and public collection of 6KBW; I received the Stanley Smith Scholarship to the Royal College of Art.

 

Education

 

2010-12      Royal College of Art, MA Fine Art Painting

2005-07      University of Brighton, BA Hons Fine Art Painting

2003-05      City College Brighton & Hove, HND Fine Art

 

Exhibitions

2023.         Immersion: colour - abstraction - contemplation, Fishing Quarter Gallery, Brighton

2023.           WRAP Open House, Brighton

2023          Studio Residency & Phoenix Open Studios, Phoenix Studios, Brighton

2023          Flamingo House, Hove

2023          Phoenix Main Gallery Studio Residency & exhibition, Brighton

2023          Overtone, group show at WRAP, Brighton

2022          Print Release party &  show Robertson Yard

2022           Embrace, 2 person show, Fishing Quarter Gallery, Brighton

2022          7 , Ruminators Arts Collective, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton

2022          Open studios, May Festival, Robertson Yard, Brighton

2022          Flamingo House, Hove

2021          Solo show, Rever Gallery, Brighton

2021          Boom at Dynamite Gallery, Brighton

2020          Phoenix Windows Exhibition. Brighton

2019          Haiku, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton

2019         Old RAF Base Exhibition Space, Kings Hill

2018          APEC Open Studios, Hove

2018          Flamingo House, May Festival, Hove

2018          George Clarks Old House New Home, Channel 4

2017          Flamingo House, Hove

2017          Shortlisted Royal Academy Summer Show, London

2016          Hinter Revisited Presents, Hinter Space, Brighton

2016          Paintywainty Show, The Last Refuge, Peckham
2015          Pushing Paint, Mauger Modern Art, London

2015          Threadneedle Art Prize, Mall Galleries, London

2014           20 Painters, Phoenix Brighton

2013           Rusty Pipe Painted Brick, Shoreditch Town Hall, London

2013           Hinter Hinter Presents, Hinter Space, Brighton

2012           Final Light, Phoenix Brighton

2012           Peckham Arts Olympiad, The Last Refuge, Peckham

2012           SHOW 2012, Royal College of Art, Battersea

2012           Paradise, RCA Milan, Milan

2011           Elizabeth House Project, Elizabeth House, Waterloo

2011           Fine Art W.I.P Show 2011, Royal College of Art, South Kensington

2010           Desire is a Golden Carrot, The Albion, Battersea

2010           Salon Art Prize 2010, Matt Roberts, Bethnal Green

2010           HOTEL, Artist Residence, Brighton (‘The Hotel Inspector’)

2009           There's Still Life, A show by Mauger Modern Art, Art London, Royal Hospital, Chelsea/ Scope Miami

2009           APEC Open’09, Brighton Fringe Festival

2009           Toovey's Contemporary Art Auction & exhibition, Worthing & Horsham Museum

2008           'Around Photography’, Brighton Photo Biennial Fringe, Hove

2008           APEC Open’08, Brighton Fringe Festival

2008           Group show, Hicks Gallery, Wimbledon

2007           Skin Deep, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool

2007           New Contemporaries - National Graduate Competition, Stroud House Gallery

2007         The Burt Brills & Cardens’ Graduate Show, University of Brighton

2006         Group show at Gallery 100, Brighton

2006         Group Show at John Packer Associates, Uckfield

2006         You May Experience Paint, University of Brighton

2006         Group show at Gallery 100, Brighton

2005         ‘Whats Goin On?’, group show at The Kettle Gallery, Hove

                  

 

 

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