nicolas party – mezzotint

Party begins with objects that are familiar to us in our daily lives and renders them in a way that heightens or exaggerates their presence. Coffee pots, cups, cutlery, geometric shapes, plants and portraits – both human and animal – often appear in his work.

The key elements that make up Party’s practise; seamlessly traversing means of production from painting to print, via sculpture, intensive chalk pastel works and direct painting to the wall as well as interactive works, chime with the core values at the heart of the year’s GI Festival.

That is, creating a conversation around production, making, and the symbiotic relationship between traditional method and new technology. As well as reflecting on the ideology at the heart of this year’s festival, Party’s work dovetails with the aims GPS has for GI and for our organisation as a whole: to examine what print can be and to make it exciting and accessible for all.

For this exhibition Party has created ‘little conversations’ via interactions between depicted subjects and objects presented via the medium of the mezzotint. ‘Conversations’ take place between pots and portraits, trees and rocks and so on. The viewer is invited to engage with these ‘conversations’.