Nick McPhail

B. 1982, Laingsburg, MI; Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Nick McPhail’s landscape-based and architecturally inspired paintings aim to propel the viewer into previously unacknowledged realms of meditation, inner contemplation, and perception. The artist weaves everyday components of our peripheries into depictions of rich and enigmatic moments stemming from memories, ideas, and emotions that come from the artist’s daily walks around his home in LA. The empty expanses of color blocking and quiet scenes are quintessential of his work and allow him to stray from strictly realistic representation and reveal a deeper meaning within his scenes. McPhail’s emphasis on the simple things that are often taken for granted encourages the viewer to pause and examine their perception of the world around them.

As a painter, draftsman, and ceramicist, McPhail draws upon elements from every facet of his practice, giving equal importance to each technique and allowing one to inform the other. In addition, the artist’s process blends traditional painting techniques with contemporary experimentation, resulting in a unique amalgamation of textures, compositions, and colors. The distinct luminosity of McPhail’s paintings results from his adaption of underpainting. This Renaissance invention involves an initial monochromatic layer of paint imbuing the subsequent layers with an unprecedented glow. McPhail challenges the technique by selecting neon orange, pink, red, or yellow as his monochromatic layer, then adding and subtracting transparent layers of oil paint to seamlessly blend traditional luminosity, modern geometry, and chromatic detail.

While McPhail’s paintings cannot be described as distinctly figurative, architectural elements are featured to establish a familiar kind of emptiness in his works. The artist’s source imagery comes primarily from Los Angeles, and is inspired and influenced by other places the artist has visited and spent time, such as Texas, Florida, Michigan, Idaho, and France. The artist’s use of color is also inspired by his home in Los Angeles, where a collision of cool pastel and bright neon tones occurs at every turn.

Nick McPhail graduated with a BFA with a focus in Painting and Ceramics from Michigan State University in 2006. He has been selected for numerous artist residencies, including those at Untitled_1983 in Geneva, Switzerland in 2019; the Holiday Forever Residency in Jackson, WY in 2019; Ochi Gallery in Ketchum, ID in 2019; 100 West Corsicana in Corsicana, TX in 2018; and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT in 2017, and was chosen as a Hopper Prize Finalist for 2023.

McPhail has exhibited internationally in San Francisco, Richmond, Paris, Los Angeles, Geneva, Düsseldorf, Arles, Berlin, Stockholm, Geneva, Chicago, Miami, Seattle, and New York City, among others. Additionally, the artist’s work has been featured at The Dallas Art Fair, the London Art Fair, the Seattle Art Fair, and Untitled Art Miami. 

In 2019, the artist’s commissioned public work, Power Lines, was permanently installed on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park (measuring 12 feet by 10 feet and painted in acrylic on aluminum). The artist and his work have been published in noteworthy publications including Literary Hub, Wrap Magazine, The American Scholar, New American Paintings, Art Now LA, Booooooom, Art Maze Magazine, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, Two Coats of Paint, San Francisco Chronicle, and Art Business.