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