PAST EXHIBITIONS
2010
BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown! August 27, 2010 - January 16, 2011, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA
Vs the Matador, December 2-29, 2010, SOIL, Seattle
The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation Art Award, 2008-2010, August 20 - October 2, 2010, Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
"Kittredge Gallery hosts best of..." by R. Ponnekanti in The News Tribune
"Tacoma's got talent" by Alex Clayton in the Weekly Volcano
In The Garden, June 2010, The Telephone Room, Tacoma
From the Inside Out, with Heather Brammeier, Heuser Art Center, Bradley University, Peoria, IL
"Installation Art" by Gary Panetta in the Journal Star
Ceramics and Works on Paper, Mineral, Tacoma
SOIL in Residence, Seattle Design Center, May 2010
Search for Landscapes, with Vesna Pavlovic, March  3-27, 2010, SOIL, Seattle, WA
"Last Resort" by Jen Graves in The Stranger
Parallel Universe, February 11- April 2, 2010, Grey Gallery,  Seattle, WA
Clay? III, March 18 - May 5, 2010, Kirkland Arts  Center, Kirkland, WA
The Problem of Universals, Jan 6-31, 2010, SOIL (backspace), Seattle, WA
Another Bouncing Ball, Getting to Know You Better, Molly Norris

2009
Introductions, Pulliam Gallery, Portland, OR
Objects of the Mind, Mineral, Tacoma, WA
About the show in The News Tribune
PDX+Pulliam, Pulliam Gallery, Portland, OR
Expo, May 7-30,SOIL, Seattle, WA
Nowhere, Anywhere, Everywhere, March 21-May 2, 2009, OHGE Ltd., Seattle
"Sweet Messes" by Jen Graves in The Stranger

Hello, The Telephone Room, Tacoma

2008
SOIL@SOIL, October 1-November 1, 2008, SOIL, Seattle, WA
Painting Pink Pajamas, November 8-January 2, 2008, Contemporary Art Center, Peoria, IL
Nicholas Nyland: Ceramics, August 6-30, 2008, SOIL <backspace, Seattle, WA
The Terrible Twos: A Lawrimore Project Biennial, June 27-July 12, 2008, Lawrimore Project, Seattle, WA
35th Anniversary Celebration, SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA
The Prom, Lawrimore Project, Seattle, WA
Click here to read a review in the Seattle P-I
This Is a Time Machine, The Helm, Tacoma, WA
Click here to read a review in the Tacoma News Tribune

2007
9 to 5, Gallery Madera, Tacoma, WA
Nicholas Nyland, Mineral, Tacoma, WA
8th Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA (catalogue)
We Are Nature, Lakewold Gardens, Lakewood, WA

2006
SOIL at Aqua Art Miami, Miami Beach, FL (catalogue)
Mirage, SOIL, Seattle, WA
Drawings, Dessins, Zeichnungen, Basil Halward Gallery, Portland, OR
Exploded View, SOIL, Seattle, WA

2005
Surge, Tacoma Contemporary Urban Art Installations in the Woolworth Building Windows, Tacoma, WA

BIO
b.1976, Lakewood, WA

EDUCATION
M.F.A. 2002, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
B.F.A. 1999 University of Washington, Seattle

GALLERIES AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Pulliam Gallery, Portland, OR
Member, SOIL Artist Collective, Seattle, WA

AWARDS AND HONORS
Artist Trust GAP Grant, 2010
Artist Trust Fellowship, 2008
Betty Bowen Award Nominee, 2008
Kamiyama Artist-in-Residence Program, Japan, 2005
City of Enumclaw/Puget Sound Energy Purchase Award, 2005
Royal College of Art Exchange Program, London, 2001
University of Washington Studio Art Program in Rome, Italy, 1997

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ArtLtd.,"15 under 35", April 2008
Graves, Jen, "Sweet Messes," The Stranger, Vol. 18, No. 29, April 2-8, 2009
Ponnekanti, Rosemary, "Lakewood artist adds dimension to already wild world", Tacoma News Tribune, p. E2, 8/4/07
8th Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, 2007
Plus Five, PennDesign, Philadelphia, 2007
Sánchez, Marisa C., "Decoys", 2010
SOIL 2006, SOIL Publications, Seattle, 2006
SOIL Artist-Run Gallery 1995-2005, SOIL Publications, Seattle, 2005

Contact: nicholasnyland(at)comcast.net

When asked to describe my work, I usually answer, “Abstract.” Unfortunately, I’ve found that answer is a great way to stop a conversation dead in its tracks. Something about abstraction seems to shut people down on a verbal level, which also explains why it is so hard to pin it down in writing (this statement not excepted).

Abstraction’s “dumbness” is probably why I’m drawn to pursue it; it is generous and capacious, able to absorb and then release a multitude of references. In my case, references as disparate as Chinese scholar’s stones, Japanese gardens, early American decorative traditions, or seventies design.

I intend to conjure a world or a space for imagination and reverie in my work that may manifest itself in miniature form or room sized wall drawing/painting installations. My work is driven by a fascination with the life of form, the nature of creation and the will to decorate. I feel reassured to borrow freely from our gloriously diverse visual culture because, as George Steiner reminds us, “there are no more beginnings”; we are playing with all the cards. The true creation, the art, lies in the transcendence of those parts into an animate whole.