Text - Bio
Nic Mason, With the kitchenalia and banksia posse, 2023, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 153cm
Bio
Nic Mason is a visual artist who lives and works in regional Australia in Wiradjuri Country. She primarily utilises painting and drawing in her art practice.
Nic has held a total of eight solo exhibitions, participated in three two person exhibitions and numerous group shows since her first solo exhibition, WILD in Cowra Regional Art Gallery in 2016. This exhibition kick started her art practice following winning the 2015 Central West Regional Art Award, through Cowra Regional Art Gallery. Nic's most recent solo exhibition, Happenings 2023 occurred at Michael Reid, Murrurundi.. In 2022 Nic's solo exhibition, Nicola Mason: Cycle at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery co-occurred with Sidney Nolan: Drought, Robert Hirschmann: Past Night and Hui Selwood: Cubi and other passages.
Her work has been recognised through being selected for a number of national exhibitions/prizes including being selected for both the S. H. Ervin 2023 and 2021 Salon des refusés (alternate Archibald portrait and 2021 Wynne landscape) exhibition. In 2023 her work was Commended in the Gulgong Une(art)hed, in 2021 her work was Runner-up in the painting section of Remagine 2021 Art Prize, and 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 Muswellbrook Art Prize 2023; Paddington Art Prize 2022; Redland Art Award 2022; Basil Sellers Art Prize 2022; Jenny Birt Award 2019; Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize 2018; The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Award 2018; Fleurieu Biennale 2018; Calleen Art Award 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016; Footscray (Tertiary) Art Prize 2017; and the Korea Australia Arts Foundation Art Award 2016.
Her practice has been propelled by a number of residencies, bursaries and grants including her 2023 Ironbark Residency a collaboration between Stuart Town STA and Orana Arts Inc; 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. In seeking and valuing family cultural exchange activities she has taken the opportunity with these residencies to travel to France and Indonesia with her family in tow. Her immersion in local communities is also evidenced by her rich involvement in running workshops such as her2023 Charcoal Workshop at The Uncooperative, at WAYOUT, a Cementa Initiative and as a Member and Director at Tablelands Artist Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst from 2013 to 2017.
Nic 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 Academic Excellence for her Honours Year at the University of New South Wales Art & Design.
Nic has held a total of eight solo exhibitions, participated in three two person exhibitions and numerous group shows since her first solo exhibition, WILD in Cowra Regional Art Gallery in 2016. This exhibition kick started her art practice following winning the 2015 Central West Regional Art Award, through Cowra Regional Art Gallery. Nic's most recent solo exhibition, Happenings 2023 occurred at Michael Reid, Murrurundi.. In 2022 Nic's solo exhibition, Nicola Mason: Cycle at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery co-occurred with Sidney Nolan: Drought, Robert Hirschmann: Past Night and Hui Selwood: Cubi and other passages.
Her work has been recognised through being selected for a number of national exhibitions/prizes including being selected for both the S. H. Ervin 2023 and 2021 Salon des refusés (alternate Archibald portrait and 2021 Wynne landscape) exhibition. In 2023 her work was Commended in the Gulgong Une(art)hed, in 2021 her work was Runner-up in the painting section of Remagine 2021 Art Prize, and 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 Muswellbrook Art Prize 2023; Paddington Art Prize 2022; Redland Art Award 2022; Basil Sellers Art Prize 2022; Jenny Birt Award 2019; Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize 2018; The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Award 2018; Fleurieu Biennale 2018; Calleen Art Award 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016; Footscray (Tertiary) Art Prize 2017; and the Korea Australia Arts Foundation Art Award 2016.
Her practice has been propelled by a number of residencies, bursaries and grants including her 2023 Ironbark Residency a collaboration between Stuart Town STA and Orana Arts Inc; 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. In seeking and valuing family cultural exchange activities she has taken the opportunity with these residencies to travel to France and Indonesia with her family in tow. Her immersion in local communities is also evidenced by her rich involvement in running workshops such as her2023 Charcoal Workshop at The Uncooperative, at WAYOUT, a Cementa Initiative and as a Member and Director at Tablelands Artist Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst from 2013 to 2017.
Nic 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 Academic Excellence for her Honours Year at the University of New South Wales Art & Design.
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In the studio
Nic Mason lives and works in regional Australia, in Wiradjuri country
The studio she works in is a miners cottage rich in stories - many of which find their way back with oral histories from neighbours and visitors returning to their past. It is thought that this dwelling is a remnant from the gold mining days of the mid to late 19th Century. Around a century later this cottage and place became a retreat for the artist, activist and philosopher Margaret Grafton. To more recent times, where Gabrielle, once the teenager inhabiting the nineties in this place, returned to the cottage and revealed her experience of shared story making centred around the mysterious Marika Gusuna, tagged on the wall. Do tell if you have news on Marika. |
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Acknowledgement of Country
I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Wiradjuri elders past, present and emerging, who are the traditional owners of the land where I live and work.
I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Wiradjuri elders past, present and emerging, who are the traditional owners of the land where I live and work.