Jonathan Nicolas

“I use contemporary means mixing graffiti with conventional painting style. The Impressionists were capturing what they saw. Cezanne was capturing what he believed was the truth of what his eyes revealed to him only in bits and pieces.” NICOLAS The current exhibit of large 6’x4’ oil and spray paint canvases by Jonathan Nicolas at Kulay Diwa is well worth a visit. His conventional painting meets graffiti style is full of movement and he plays with spatial illusion that reminds me of Dufy and Cezanne’s watercolors – drawing with paint that both describes and transcends it. There is a playful intensity and repetition of the line that is both compelling and thoughtful. His subjects are men in uniform presented in a graffiti-like manner using colorful and lyrical flowing lines, planes and forms. A ‘happy-face’ appears almost as an overpaint or actual graffiti on the faces of each of his uniformed subjects. The sometimes shape-shifting planes and colors lead the eye through the work giving it a continuity of purpose. Nicolas uses flowing lines, planes, colors, forms, objects, and symbols to stimulate the viewer’s thinking process, feelings and sensations – both conscious and subconscious. Jonathan Nicolas is a Filipino-French artist who travels the world on his quest to pursue his career as an artist. Before turning to art, he completed studies in financial engineering and had a career in banking. He paints and works as a web designer to allow freedom to paint and to travel. Nicolas studied with a filipino mentor, took courses at the Louvre and worked at the studio of a graffiti artist in Paris. He is currently studying painting at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. The content for his work is his starting point – draws from flashes of content he encounters in daily life. His current content is based on people in uniform and this exhibit features a series of paintings of policemen speaking to the current Filipino situation. “People interest me in general, the common conscience of humanity, its spirit, intertwined in ways that are incomprehensible and invisible captures my curiosity.” NICOLAS

I highly recommend this exhibition. Gord Snyder/independent writer/curator