Nick Bodimeade British, b. 1957
"We have all sat on the beach conscious of both looking and being looked at. Conscious
too of how bodies on beaches seem especially connected to the landscape, often literally
embedded in it. We have squinted at the light and seen our surroundings dissolve and
reform, mirage-like, as the eye adjusts and focuses. From up high on the cliffs we zoom
in and out, scanning and selecting, picking the individual from the mass, seeking pattern
and order from the apparently casual relationships of bodies in space."
For Nick, the beach and the photograph of the beach have equal status as subject, and when explored through his richly handled and formally articulate painting, a further layer of pleasurable looking, thinking and reflection is added.
"Bodies in space become the ‘figure-ground relationship’, a central issue for so much
painting. The beach starts each day like a blank canvas, people arrive and organise
themselves, in relation to the sun, sea, land and wind, but most importantly to each
other. It is like a grand experiment in social behaviour where all you need to know about
human interaction is there, visible and paintable. It is also an endlessly changing optical
field allowing an exploration of the territory between abstraction and representation,
and those transitional moments when a thing becomes untied from a singular reading,
ground becomes light, bodies dissolve into paint, the illusionary becomes physical."
With the advent of digital photography, Nick, who until that point had been an abstract
painter and maker of representational and observational drawings, became fascinated
by the possibilities new technology provided for the studio painter. His works are now as
much an exploration of the relationship between paint and digital manipulation as they
are an exploration of subject.
Nick lives and paints on the flood plain of the Ouse at the foot of the South Downs near
Lewes in East Sussex. The imagery in his paintings is derived from drawings and
photographs done in locations on the south coast of England, particularly Sussex and
Cornwall, and on research trips to what he describes as the ‘distorting mirror’ of New
Zealand and Australia.
Born in 1957 in Richmond, London, Nick has a BA in Fine Art from the university of
Wolverhampton and, after many years as a lecturer in Fine Art at a number of art
colleges, now lives and works as a full time painter near Lewes in East Sussex. He exhibits
widely in London and the South.
Porthminster Gallery, St Ives has represented Nick Bodimeade exclusively in Cornwall
since 2009.
He exhibits widely in London and the South.
Selected current/recent exhibitions:
2021 'A Space to Breathe' Porthminster Gallery, St Ives
2019 Studio Show in collaboration with Sarah Okane Fine Art
'Between Worlds' Glyndebourne Opera House Gallery
Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden
Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel
Porthminster Gallery, St Ives
Caxton Gallery, Whitstable
Nadia Waterfield Fine Art, Hampshire
2018 Porthminster Gallery, St Ives
Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel
Glyndeborne Opera House Gallery, Glynde
Caxton Gallery, Whitstable
St Annes Gallery, Lewes
2017 Zimmer Stewart Gallery, 'Bostal'
2016 Sarah Okane Fine Art, Lewes. 'Tracks, Trails and Tarmac'
2015 Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel, 'Southern Winds'
2013 Sarah O'Kane Fine Art, Lewes.'B-Roads'
Porthminster Gallery, St Ives. 'From Here'
2012 Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel. 'Standing, Sitting, Walking, Lying'
2011 Sarah O'Kane Fine Art, Lewes. 'Chromide St'
2010 Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden. 'Sometimes a Blob'
2009 Sarah O'Kane Fine Art, St Annes Galleries, Lewes. 'Winnebago'
2008 Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden. 'Onomatopoeia'
2008 Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel. 'Beach Geometry'
2007 HQ Gallery, Lewes. 'Dwelling'
2005 Star Gallery 2, Lewes. 'A Day Last Summer'.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017 Towards Night , Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
2015 Porthminster Gallery, St Ives 'Summer Show'
Sarah Okane Fine Art, London Art Fair. Porthminster Gallery, St Ives. St Annes Galleries, Lewes.
2014 Sarah Okane Fine Art, London Art Fair. Porthminster Gallery, St Ives
Hilton Fine Art, Bath. Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel.
2013 St Annes Galleries, Lewes. Porthminster Gallery St Ives
2012 Four Square Fine Arts. London Art Fair. Four Square Fine Arts, London. 'Genius Loci', Four Square Fine Arts, London. Natue as Mind:Mind as Nature
2011 Porthminster Gallery, St Ives. Chalk Hill Fine Art, Guildford
2010 Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden, Porthminster Gallery, St Ives.
Chalk Hill Fine Art, Guildford, Sarah O'kane Fine Art, Lewes, Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel and St Art Gallery, AAF Paris
2009 Porthminster Gallery, St Ives, Caxton Gallery, Whitstable, Sarah O'Kane Fine Art, Lewes and Sarah O'kane Fine Art, AAF Amsterdam
2008 Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden, Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel and
Sarah O'kane Fine Art, AAF Amsterdam.
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A SPACE TO BREATHE
Post-lockdown contemporary paintings and ceramics 3 Jul - 31 Aug 2021St Ives Porthminster Gallery's upcoming exhibition 'A Space to Breathe' opens on Saturday 3rd July, with a breath of fresh air at the launch of artist and "gallery favourite" Nick Bodimeade's new series of post-lockdown paintings. The exhibition will also debut fresh new paintings and ceramics made during those trying times by permanent gallery artists, Joanne Last, Freya Horsley, Barry Stedman and Geoffrey Swindell.Read more
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RELOCATION
11 Sep - 24 Oct 2020The opening collection at our new premises at 22 Fore Street is a changing showcase of artworks by some of the many established and emerging British Artists whom we represent,...Read more -
ST IVES SUMMER SHOW: 12
18 May - 24 Aug 2019Porthminster Gallery in St Ives hosts its summer exhibition of coastal landscape and sea inspired paintings and ceramics by gallery artists Nick Bodimeade, Jenny Hirst, Freya Horsley, Joanne Last, Martyn Perryman, Sarah Perry, Geoffrey Swindell and Jane Muende.Read more -
FESTIVAL! TWO PERSON SHOW
ANN WINDER-BOYLE and NICK BODIMEADE 8 Sep - 13 Oct 2018Show of new mixed-media artworks and sculptures by Ann Winder-Boyle, and new oil on canvas paintings by Nick Bodimeade.Read more
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CORNUCOPIA
9 Sep - 9 Nov 2017The award-winning Porthminster Gallery celebrates the rich autumnal bounty of original art with its latest curated selling show in St Ives. A ‘cornucopia’ of delights – a visual feast –...Read more -
St Ives Summer Show 2016
2 Jul - 3 Sep 2016Summer is finally here in sunny St Ives! Come along and join in the fun at our award-winning beachside gallery to celebrate our sizzling Summer Show. With nostalgia-evoking works about...Read more
