Nic Mason is interested in the possibilities of enticing new ways of thinking through connection and engagement with art. Her work is richly informed by her background in conservation and land management and influenced by her domestic life.
After attaining a Science degree she worked in the conservation and land management field. In the middle of 2016 she resigned from her employment position in this sector to focus on her art practice in a full-time capacity and to commence studies in the painting workshop at the Australian National University. In 2019 she has been listed on the Dean's List for her Honours Year at the University of New South Wales Art & Design.
Her practice has been propelled by a number of residencies including her 2020 Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) internship / residency at Babaran Segaragunung Culture House; 2019 Bundanon Artist in Residence program through Bundanon Trust; 2018-19 Art of Threatened Species residency, a collaboration between Orana Arts Inc and the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment; and 2017 residency at the Centre d'Art Marnay Art Centre (Camac), France.
Her work has been selected for both the S. H. Ervin 2021 Salon des refusés (alternate Archibald portrait and Wynne landscape) exhibition and was runner-up in the painting section of Remagine 2021 Art Prize. In 2020 her work was Highly Commended in the National Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing. Her works have additionally been selected as a finalists in numerous other national awards including the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize 2018; The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Award 2018; Fleurieu Biennale 2018; Calleen Art Award 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016; Footscray (Tertiary) Art Prize 2017; Brisbane Art Prize 2017 and 2016; and the Korea Australia Arts Foundation Art Award 2016.
Winning the 2015 Central West Regional Art Award, through Cowra Regional Art Gallery led to her first solo exhibition, WILD in Cowra Regional Art Gallery in 2016. She has since held a further five solo exhibitions, participated in three two person exhibitions and numerous group shows. Her most recent solo exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Nicola Mason: Cycle co-occurred with Sidney Nolan: Drought, Robert Hirschmann: Past Night and Hui Selwood: Cubi and other passages, 9 April - 5 June 2022.
