Nic Mason - Profile
Nic is an artist. Her work is about her life, our environment and connection. |
Nic Mason is an emerging artist in regional Australia. In mid 2016 Nic left her other career in conservation and land management to focus full time on her art practice and commence post graduate studies in painting at the Australian National University.
In 2016 Nic held her first solo art exhibition, WILD in Cowra Regional Art Gallery. This opportunity was born out of being awarded the 2015 Central West Regional Art Award through Cowra Regional Art Gallery. Within 12 months she held her second solo art exhibition, STILL in her home town of Bathurst, NSW at Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery. She has been recognised with a number of works selected for a number of national art prizes including the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize 2018; Waterhouse Natural Science Award 2018; Fleurieu Biennale 2018; Calleen Art Award 2018, 2017 and 2016; Footscray (Tertiary) Art Prize 2017; Brisbane Art Prize 2017 and 2016; and the Korea Australia Art Foundation Prize 2016. She is well immersed in her local community having run a number of art workshops in schools since 2013 and having rich involvement as a Member and Director in Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst, from 2013 to 2017. Nic has found herself seduced by paint, the process of painting and art history. She is interested in the act of creating and in communicating concepts, where along with art, Nic cares deeply about the environment. She is richly informed by her background in science and she is interested in the possibilities of enticing new ways of thinking through connection and engagement with art. After attaining a Science degree she relished a twenty-year career in the conservation and land management sector. She sees her art practice as an extension from her background in conservation management. In both science and art she observes the world, theorises, experiments, problem solves and communicates. |
A peek into Nic's studio an old miners cottage |
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What's Nic up to now?
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In the middle of 2017 Nic travelled to France with her family to undertake a cultural exchange and practice her art both independently and as part of an international artist residency at Centre d'Art Marnay Art Centre, Marnay-sur-Seine supported by a subvention from the Fondation Ténot, and a NSW Artist Grant from Create NSW administered through the National Association for the Visual Arts.
Upon her return Nic has been deep in her studio painting for her two solo art exhibitions of 2018 at the CSIRO Discovery Centre Gallery, North Science Road, Action, Canberra, ACT in July and August and then in A. K. Bellinger Gallery, NSW in October and November and a number of group exhibitions. She is also undertaking research as part of the Art of Threatened Species residency project in collaboration with Orana Arts and the Department of Environment and Heritage. Nic is optimistic about continuing learning and in creating work that enables meaning to resonate over time and place. |