Darcy Nicholas

Date of birth / Date established
1945
Place of birth / Place established
Biography
Source- http://www.maoriart.org.nz/profiles/darcy_nicholas
Darcy Nicholas
My paintings are about identity, the ancestral lines that connect me with the universe. I want to paint the spiritual richness that speaks of the timeless culture that I know. I hope we never lose the multiplicity of our heritage.


Darcy Nicholas
Born in Waitara, Taranaki in 1945, Darcy Nicholas belongs to the Te Atiawa, Ngati Ruanui, and Tauranga Moana tribes.

Darcy was brought up in a tightly knit Maori community and is the second youngest in a family of twelve children.

He has exhibited widely in Africa, Australia, the United States, Britain, Germany, and France. He has owned and operated his own gallery and has held many senior executive positions in the arts field. He is currently Group Manager of Cultural Development in Porirua City, New Zealand.

Darcy Nicholas is both a painter and sculptor and works principally in acrylic paint on paper and canvas. He is a maker of painted wooden masks, one of which was recently purchased by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. His paintings and sculpture are in public collections in New Zealand, Britain and Germany.

Darcy Nicholas has completed works in stone, wood, bone and is not afraid to work in a wide range of medium.

Nicholas says of his own work:

"My paintings are about identity, the ancestral lines that connect me with the universe. I want to paint the spiritual richness that speaks of the timeless culture that I know. I hope we never lose the multiplicity of our heritage. We are what our ancestors have made us. The earth and the stars are our ancient ancestors and we are part of them. The earth is my primeval mother and I am her son."

Selected Exhibitions
1996 Patua Exhibition, Wellington International Arts Festival, Wellington
1996 Hendersonville, North Carolina
1995 Te Taumata Art Gallery, Auckland
1994 YMI Cultural Centre, Ashville, North Carolina
1994 Milford House, Dunedin
1993 Indigenous artists of NZ and the US, Taumata Gallery, Auckland
1992/93 Te Waka Toi - Contemporary Maori Art touring the United States (Museum of Man, San Diego; Heard Museum, Phoenix; Field Museum, Chicago; Burke Museum, Seattle; University of Hawaii - Oahu)
1991 International Arts Symposium, Lower Hutt
1990 International Stone Symposium, Timaru (African, Japanese, and Maori artists)
1987 National Galleries Zimbabwe, and Botswana (six Mäori artists in Africa)
1987 Galerie Roberson, Paris
1986 Galerie Sensitive, Paris
1985 Te Ao Maori (touring Australian galleries)
1985 Amphac Centre, Hawaii
1984 Curzon Club, London
1979 Gisborne City Art Gallery
1973/96 Several major exhibitions of Maori Art throughout NZ
1973 Pride Gallery, Lower Hutt (annually for six years)
1972 Antipodes Gallery, Wellington (annually for three years)

Links
Darcy Nicholas profile on the International Art Centre website
Darcy Nicholas profile on the Rona Art Gallery website
Darcy Nicholas Contemporary Maori Art website

Share

Maker of