Nick Fagan

b. 1992; Lives and works in Richmond, VA

 Nick Fagan's artwork is a material reaction to his experiences with mental health, disability, religion, and labor. With his personal history in mind, the artist's practice spans topics including the spirituality of banal objects, ritual and transformation, the abstraction of language, and the humor and duality of masculinity.

Language exists in Fagan's work along a spectrum of somewhat readable text to a tangle of unrecognizable forms resulting in abstract, illegible groupings. This abstraction stems from the artist's experience with dyslexia and seeing language as a confusion of symbols. The artist's transformation of text-like forms into abstract shapes embeds them with cultural signifiers related to cartoons and animation, Gilded Age architecture, and male anatomy. By creating playful curves, flaccid forms, and soft colors within a larger-than-life scale, Fagan references manhood according to the duality found between strength and humility.