Nicholas Jolly

Born in 1962 Nicholas Jolly initially studied Fine Art at Gloucestershire College of Art. Shortly after graduating, a self portrait was accepted for the John Player Portrait Awards at National Portrait Gallery in London, where it was bought by the art critic Brian Sewell. This was to start a series of events that culminated in a widely publicized exhibition of Ten Young Painters of Promise, 1995.

Encouraged by his early success Nicholas spent three-years as a student at the Royal Academy, London, where he developed a growing affinity with a new generation of figurative painting coming out of Germany and Scotland. On graduating he began to exhibit frequently in London. A major exhibition of his work was held at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in 1990, and in the following year his first solo exhibition was held at the Paton Gallery, London, where his work was bought for the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In 1994 Nicholas spent most of the year working in Connecticut, USA. On his return to London he began to exhibit regularly in London. Influenced by his time in the USA he developed an interest in vintage American magazines and their British 1950’s counterparts, such as Picture Post; portraying the formalized poses and contrived mannerisms of 1950’s advertising.

In the same year, one of his large scale works was accepted by the Osaka Triennale, Japan,- winning a major purchase prize in the exhibition. His success continued to grow, with his work becoming exhibited widely in the US and in Europe

In 1996 Nicholas received an invitation to participate in the highly prestigious Premio Marco exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Mexico. The following year he began to work on a highly ambitious triptych depicting a car crash, which took two years to complete. The finished 16 foot long painting Fatal Collision was finally exhibited at the Osaka Triennale in 2001, where it won a major purchase prize. A year after completing this painting he decided to take a break from from full-time painting allowing him to embark on other projects. One project in particular was the result of suggestion from a friend that he should start a humorous gentlemen’s magazine called ‘The Chap’. The magazine proved far more successful than he could have anticipated, resulting in a commission to write 4 spin-off books, as well as TV animation work. In 2005 he decided to return to painting and for the past four years he has continued to work from his studio in London.

He was recently awarded the prestigious Camaradas Art Prize together with the Mexican artist Fernando Holguin Cereceres. The competition is organised by the Mexican Embassy in the UK to promote cultural links between the two countries.