Nic Mason - Profile
Nic Mason is an emerging artist.
In mid 2016 she changed her focus from working in the conservation and land management field to focus full time on her art practice. At this time she commenced studies in the painting workshop at the Australian National University, School of Art & Design. From 2019 she has been continuing her studies through undertaking a Fine Arts (Honours) Year at University of New South Wales, Art & Design.
Her work has been recognised through being selected for a number of art prizes including the Jenny Birt Award 2019; Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize 2018; Waterhouse Natural Science Award 2018; Fleurieu Biennale 2018; Calleen Art Award 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016; Footscray (Tertiary) Art Prize 2017; Brisbane Art Prize 2017 and 2016; and the Korea Australia Art Foundation Prize 2016.
In 2016 she 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. Since she has held three solo exhibitions within NSW and ACT: STILL in Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst, 2017; BALANCE in CSIRO Discovery Centre Gallery, Canberra, 2018 with Gallery of Small Things; and Résidence in A K Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, 2018. In 2019; and has exhibited in two two person exhibitions in 2017 with An Unguarded Moment with Kiata Mason at AK Bellinger Gallery; and in 2019 with Still and Within with Alison Mackay in Project Gallery 90. In 2018/2019 she also undertook research as part of the Art of Threatened Species residency project in collaboration with Orana Arts and the Office of Environment and Heritage. Through this project she joined the conversation as a guest speaker with Art of Threatened Species peers at the Artstate Bathurst 2018 Conference and exhibited work as part of this collaboration in Western Plains Cultural Centre in 2019.
In the middle of 2017 she 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.
Since 2013 she has run a number of art workshops in schools. Her immersion in her local community is also evidenced by her rich involvement as a Member and Director in Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst, from 2013 to 2017.
Nic Mason has found herself seduced by paint, the process of painting, thinking about art and art history. She is interested in the act of creating and in communicating concepts. She is interested in the possibilities of enticing new ways of thinking through connection and engagement with art. She is richly informed by her background in ecological sciences. After attaining a Science degree she worked in the conservation and land management field. She sees her art practice as an extension from her background in ecological sciences In both science and art she observes the world, questions, theorises, experiments, problem solves and communicates. With her concern for the environment she uses her art practice to think about land management practices and environmental loss and hope.
In mid 2016 she changed her focus from working in the conservation and land management field to focus full time on her art practice. At this time she commenced studies in the painting workshop at the Australian National University, School of Art & Design. From 2019 she has been continuing her studies through undertaking a Fine Arts (Honours) Year at University of New South Wales, Art & Design.
Her work has been recognised through being selected for a number of art prizes including the Jenny Birt Award 2019; Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize 2018; Waterhouse Natural Science Award 2018; Fleurieu Biennale 2018; Calleen Art Award 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016; Footscray (Tertiary) Art Prize 2017; Brisbane Art Prize 2017 and 2016; and the Korea Australia Art Foundation Prize 2016.
In 2016 she 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. Since she has held three solo exhibitions within NSW and ACT: STILL in Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst, 2017; BALANCE in CSIRO Discovery Centre Gallery, Canberra, 2018 with Gallery of Small Things; and Résidence in A K Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, 2018. In 2019; and has exhibited in two two person exhibitions in 2017 with An Unguarded Moment with Kiata Mason at AK Bellinger Gallery; and in 2019 with Still and Within with Alison Mackay in Project Gallery 90. In 2018/2019 she also undertook research as part of the Art of Threatened Species residency project in collaboration with Orana Arts and the Office of Environment and Heritage. Through this project she joined the conversation as a guest speaker with Art of Threatened Species peers at the Artstate Bathurst 2018 Conference and exhibited work as part of this collaboration in Western Plains Cultural Centre in 2019.
In the middle of 2017 she 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.
Since 2013 she has run a number of art workshops in schools. Her immersion in her local community is also evidenced by her rich involvement as a Member and Director in Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery, Bathurst, from 2013 to 2017.
Nic Mason has found herself seduced by paint, the process of painting, thinking about art and art history. She is interested in the act of creating and in communicating concepts. She is interested in the possibilities of enticing new ways of thinking through connection and engagement with art. She is richly informed by her background in ecological sciences. After attaining a Science degree she worked in the conservation and land management field. She sees her art practice as an extension from her background in ecological sciences In both science and art she observes the world, questions, theorises, experiments, problem solves and communicates. With her concern for the environment she uses her art practice to think about land management practices and environmental loss and hope.
In the studio ...
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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.