Exhibition
Nick Ivins
5 Sep-15 Nov 2025
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange
Newlyn TR18 5PZ
International Summertime, 2024, Oil on panel. Credit: Nick Ivins
Overview
In 1985, Nick Ivins created what he thought would be a ‘final’ painting — on a found matchbox — in honour of a fellow student who had drowned at Loe Bar, just across Mount’s Bay from Newlyn Art Gallery. He did not paint again for 30 years, until a move in 2015 to a house overlooking the sea reignited his practice.
His paintings are shaped by the meeting point of unstable, landslip-prone shoreline and sea. Ships and Ship-branded matchboxes, threatening waves, and figures bathing all feature in works that explore human fragility alongside the pleasures of a life well-lived. An ongoing body of late-night portrait drawings (made in front of BBC Newsnight) runs in parallel to this practice.
Working both on location and in the studio, Nick uses quick mark-making, over-painting, and reclaimed surfaces such as shipping crates, allowing oil-rich paint to flow with gravity. Drawings and small works made outdoors often form the starting point for larger works back in the studio.
