(b. 1969 Grahamstown, South Africa)

Nigel Mullins completed his Master of Fine Art degree with distinction at Rhodes University in 1993. Since graduating, he has had 15 solo exhibitions in South Africa, Scotland, England, and Germany and has taken part in some 45 group shows. His work has been represented on the Cape Town, Johannesburg, Frankfurt and London art fairs and on the Mumia International Underground Animation Festival.

In 2014 he exhibited Chaotic Region at Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa.  Mullins was the winner of the first prize at the Royal Overseas League 14th Annual Open Exhibition in London in 1997, Mullins was a nominee for the Daimler Chrysler Award for Contemporary South African Art in 2000 and recipient of a merit prize at the ABSA Atelier in the same year.

His work is included in such public and corporate collections as: Rhodes University, ABSA, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, South African Association, SASOL, TELKOM, Rand Merchant Bank, Hollard, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Collection, Pretoria Art Museum, Sanlam, Nandos UK, Spier and KPMG. Nigel Mullins lives and works in Grahamstown with his wife Tanya Poole and daughter Sophie.

Nigel Mullins’ work, from the Chaotic Region (2013) and beyond, aims to demystify the tropes and icons that have sustained the myths used to justify or validate Western Culture for the last several hundred years. Famous figures that have been up for ironic denigration include Elvis Presley, Lenin, Queen Elizabeth I and Yuri Gagarin (the first human in space). His attitude is often reflected in the titles as much as the images themselves: for example, Queen Elizabeth becomes An Obsolete Remnant of the Industrial Age and Yuri Gagarin’s image is entitled Your Bright Future Guarantee.

He applies the paint in thick slabs, drawing attention to itself and drawing our attention to the painting as an object – an artifact. Often the paint seems to climb out of the frame and melds with wire – breaking the division between the work or art and the world around it. Borders are overcome. Nothing is sacred or sacrosanct. It is only when we have reduced these often overwhelming and mythologized figure to their human scale and their proper place scan we see ourselves – past, present and future – clearly. 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016  

21st Century Talismans, Everard Read, London , UK

Retrogressive Propaganda, Everard Read, Cape Town

Reality Check, Group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town

2015  

The Obsolete Remnants of the Industrial age. Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa

2014 

Buy You Time, Equus Gallery, Western Cape, South Africa

Chaotic Region, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

2013  

Chaotic Region, curated by Tanya Poole, Rhodes University Alumni Gallery and Standard Bank Gallery, South Africa

Chaotic Region, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2008  

Caveman Spaceman, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2006  

Earthlings, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2005  

Ends and Escapes, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2004  

Pacifier, ABSA Bank Gallery, Johannesburg. South Africa

2003  

Fix, Rhodes University Alumni Gallery, Albany Museum, Grahamstown Arts Festival, South Africa

2001  

Hopeful Monsters, Hanel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Superhuman, ROSL, London and Edinburgh, UK

Hopeful Monsters, Hanel Gallery, Wiesbaden, Germany

Hopeful Monsters, Lithographs in Collaboration with Fine Line Press

2000  

New Work, Dorp street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

1999  

Superhuman, Hanel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1998  

ROSL Prizewinner Exhibition, Continuum, Landings Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

Continuum, Lamont Gallery, London, UK

Momentum, Grahamstown Arts Festival and Association of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa

1994  

Window into the South African Landscape, Grosvenor St, Mayfair, London, UK

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016  

Title to be confirmed- CIRCA Gallery Group exhibition, London ,UK

2015  

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, CIRCA Gallery Booth, London, UK

FNB Jo burg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa

Cape Town Art Fair 2015, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Empire , Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Winter, Everard Read,  Cape Town, South Africa

2014  

Cape Town Art Fair 2014, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Johannesburg Art Fair 2014, Johans Borman Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa

Everard Read Winter Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa

2013  

Tom Waits For No Man, curated by Gordon Froud, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn, South Africa

Weerberig, Curated by Luan Nel, Aardklop, South Africa

Kunstfees, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Johannesburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011  

MullinsPoole, The Bettendorffsche Gallery, Germany

2010  

View From The South, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

On Colour, Colour a Colloquium. Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa

8th MUMIA – Underground World Animation Festival 2010. Brazil

Juncture.Painting from South Africa. Nigel Mullins, Tanya Poole, Luan Nel. artSPACE, Berlin, Germany

International Festival of Animated Film of Fortaleza,. Brazil

2009  

Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa

X2, Albany Museum, Grahamstown National Arts Festival, South Africa

Hang in There, Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2008  

Johannesburg Art Fai, Johannesburg, South Africa

Between Meaning and Matter, Bell-Roberts, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

ABSA, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum

Ann Bryant Art Museum

Deloites and Touche

Ernst and Young

Hollard Insurance

Ken Logan Art Collection, USA

KPMG

Nandos UK

Oliewenhuis Art Museum

Old MutuaL Bank

Pretoria Art Museum, Sanlam

Rhodes University Collection

South African Association

Spier Art Collection

SAB

SASOL

Telkom, Rand Merchant Bank

Westminster and Chelsea Hospital Collection, London , UK

ZENECA

SELECTED AWARDS

1997  

First Prize, Royal Overseas League 14th Annual Exhibition. London.

1999  

Nominee for the Daimler Chrysler Award for Contemporary South African Art

2000  

Merit Prize, ABSA Atelier