NAG Hosts First Artist-in-Residence
Nick Law, Oil on Canvas, 36 by 12 inches (approx.), 2008
National Art Gallery (NAG), Maldives hosted its first artist-in-residence (AIR) earlier this year. Although the gallery has been supporting Maldivian artists to attend international AIR programs in the region and beyond, this is the first time an artist from another country had been invited to the Maldives to live and work for a period of three months. At the end of the residency, the artist had also produced a body of work that would be exhibited at the NAG later in the year. The artist, Nick Law (UK), a graduate of Grey’s School of Art, Scotland, made an initial presentation about his experience of the residency and his work to gallery members and local artists in July this year.
Nick Law, Oil on Canvas, 30cm by 30cm (approx.), 2008
After graduation Law had also spent three months traveling and painting in Florence, Italy, supported by a Royal Scottish Academy Scholarship. He paints realistic images of city life and landscapes and uses photography as an integral part of his process. More recently, he is also using photography as a medium ‘in its own right’, and his residency in the Maldives saw him use photos as final works of art rather than produce paintings based on the photos (sometimes photo collages, as he works on a composition by juxtaposing sections of various photos together).
Nick Law, digital photo, 2008