Nick
Macneil
Education
2017-2018- Wimbledon College of Art - MA Fine Art Painting
2011-2014- Wimbledon College of Art - BA Fine Art Painting
Exhibitions
2025-"Anticipation" KNST Collective, SET Ealing, London
2024- 'BEEP Painting Biennial', Elysium Gallery, Cardiff
2024- 'Open call', Phony collective, Gallery Lock in, Brighton
2024-young collectors, online exhibition, UK
2023- "Homecoming" Sothebys London
2023- "Giving in Unity" Romero House, London
2019- "All staff show" Daniels spectrum, Toronto Canada
2019- "Utopia Through Nostalgia" The Koppel Project, London
2018- "SSA Annual Exhibition", The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2018- "62 Hands", Lewisham Arthouse, London
2017- "Art Yellow Book", CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea
2016- "but not simpler", Espacio Gallery, Bethnal Green, London
2015- "Pure Painting", Bar Gallery, Wilsden, London
2014- Wimbledon College of Arts Undergraduate Show, London
2014- "Thames Tower Residency", Hammersmith, London
2013- "Hans Brinker Hotel exhibition", Amsterdam, Holland
2013- "I threw it on the ground", Bahavan Gallery, West Kensington, London
Articles
Formation Art-Interview
https://www.formationart.com/art-interviews/nick-macneil
Awards
Nominated for the Prunella Clough Painting Award 2013
Nominated for the Hans Brinker Hotel Exhibition 2013
About the Artist.
Nick Macneil approaches painting with a sense of immediacy, aiming for the viewer to take in all the visual information at once. Rather than depicting light and shadow through traditional means, he uses colour and tone to evoke these elements, often drawing on the ephemeral qualities of refractions and reflections—whether seen in water, glass, or the mirage above a flame.
These subtle disturbances, which interrupt visual continuity, are expressed in Macneil’s work through streaks of coloured light and droplet-like forms that move across the surface, disrupting darker, gestural organic shapes beneath. This interplay creates a dynamic tension between movement and stillness, clarity and obscurity.
Working primarily in a landscape format, Macneil’s paintings suggest atmosphere and terrain, inspired by close observation of clouds at various times of day and an attentiveness to both natural and artificial environments.
At the heart of his practice is a desire for the paintings to feel light and unburdened. By intentionally "dropping the dead weight," Macneil seeks to strip away excess and avoid a sense of heaviness, leaving behind work that feels expansive, fluid, and vibrantly alive.