167. Nicholas Wyatt - Prarie #1

2026
Oil on panel
13 x 18 x 0.5 cm
Signed on Verso

Nicholas Wyatt is a contemporary British artist, writer, researcher, and co-founder of the artist-run cooperative Cubitt, London. His work belongs to a longstanding tradition within British art that explores the relationship between the contemporary and the historical, the sacred and the secular — a lineage stretching from William Blake and the Pre-Raphaelites through to contemporary figures such as Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili.

Using painting as an experimental and philosophical tool, Wyatt investigates how visual art can communicate narratives of presence across time, cultures, and belief systems through both abstract and figurative forms. Influenced by German Romanticism and the reception aesthetics of Baroque religious iconography, his expressionist practice — encompassing painting, drawing, and printmaking — examines the emotional and spiritual charge of images. His work forges connections between contemporary aesthetic concerns and the devotional traditions of artists such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Caravaggio, and El Greco.

Series including Annunciation and Walking in Memphis reflect Wyatt’s sustained exploration of faith, symbolism, transcendence, and visual intensity. Through layered painterly surfaces and emotionally charged compositions, his works examine how images carry meaning, memory, and spiritual resonance across historical distance.

Wyatt completed a PhD in Fine Art at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University (2009–2015). His doctoral thesis, The Christian Image and Contemporary British Painting: The Communication of Meaning and Experience in Religious Paintings, examined the continued relevance and communicative potential of religious imagery within contemporary painting. He previously completed a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins School of Art, London (1981–1984).

Solo exhibitions include Angels & The City at Cubitt, London (2017); Nicholas Wyatt at Loughborough University School of Arts (2014); True Romance at Galerie Anton, The Hague (2008); Nicholas Wyatt: Showcase nl in Amsterdam (2005); exhibitions at Galerie de Rijk, The Hague (2003); The Sublime at Azul Galerie, The Hague (2000); Nicholas Wyatt at Ateliers Hoherweg, Düsseldorf (1996); and Heart’s Desire at Regent’s University, London (1991).

Selected group exhibitions include Cubitt Invites at Cubitt, London (2024 & 2025); Cubitt 30 at Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2022); Re-Rooting: Mapping 30 Years of Cubitt at Cubitt Gallery, London (2022); The Divine Feminine with Art from Heart (2022); The Art of Painting at Copeland Gallery, London (2021); CCR Golden Jubilee at Basilica Santa Anastasia al Palatino, Rome (2017); It’s Your Birthday: Cubitt 25th Anniversary at Darbyshire, London (2016); Research as Practice at Beaconsfield Gallery, London (2013); After the Endgame – New Abstraction at RC de Ruimte, Amsterdam (2007); Returning Night at Gasworks, London (2003); Lonely This Christmas at James Windsor Art @ i-Level, London (2002); and The Wreck of Hope at The Nunnery, London (2000).

Awards include being shortlisted for the Prix de Rome (2000), receiving a London Arts Board Award for Exhibition Research (1996), and a British Council Overseas Exhibition Award (1993).

His work is held in public and private collections including the CCR Collection at Palazzo San Callisto, Vatican City; Stadt Sparkasse Bank, Düsseldorf; the Karsten Schubert Collection, London; and the Cubitt Collection, London, alongside private collections in the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany.