Party, Nicolas | Elephant, 2012 — available on Composition Gallery

Paint on paper. Not signed.

Elephant by Nicolas Party, created in 2012, is a unique painted paper sculpture measuring 15 x 5 x 5 cm. This compact three-dimensional work features a stylized gray elephant rendered in ink and watercolor, with its head and elongated trunk stretching down the front of the vertical form. Executed in Party’s distinct illustrative style, the piece balances playful simplicity with sculptural presence. Despite its modest size, the work evokes monumentality and humor, typical of Party’s exploration of anthropomorphism and art history through contemporary media. The object blurs the line between painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Nicolas Party (Switzerland, 1980) is a contemporary artist celebrated for his surreal, vividly colored landscapes and portraits. Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, he reimagines classical genres with a modern twist. Party’s art often features soft pastel as a primary medium, creating dreamlike atmospheres that captivate viewers.

Nicolas Party

Elephant, 2012

Name: Elephant, 2012
SKU: 16264

Form

Sculpture / Object

Sculpture / ObjectA sculpture is a three-dimension object made using any one of the basic sculpting processes. These include carving, casting, constructing or modeling. Carving materials may be bone, ivory, stone or wood. Modeling and casting use clay or wax, while constructions glue materials together.

Medium

Mixed Media

Mixed MediaMixed media refers to artwork that incorporates more than one medium within a single piece. Unlike multimedia art, which combines distinct forms of visual art and often includes elements like sound, video, or digital media, mixed media focuses on combining traditional art materials, such as paint, ink, and collage. Mixed media art allows artists to achieve a wide range of effects and textures by layering and blending different materials.

Edition

Unique work

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●Inventory 16264

●Not signed

Limited Edition Print

Mixed Media

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The contemporary painter, installation artist, and sculptor, Nicholas Party, is most well-known for the critically acclaimed way in which he unites a disquieting form of representation with otherwise soothing pastel colors and flowing, simplified organic shapes. Although his works characteristically feature sharp demarcations between the various subjects and elements of his compositions, they nevertheless reflect his early interest in graffiti art, exhibiting an air-brushed quality.

His landscapes feature highly stylized, abstracted depictions of trees, shrubs, and other flora, which are reminiscent of both Félix Vallotton's unemotional landscapes and Theodor Seuss Geisel's well-known illustrations.

With respect to his portraits, Nicholas Party's figures appear both imposing and yet supple, owing to his skilled use of shading. Although irrealist in form, his subjects often stare out from the canvass with wide, penetrating eyes, much in the manner of Ferdinand Hodler's realist portraits. By denuding his own subjects of the detail associated with realist representations and depicting them as androgenous, Party's subjects appear uncanny and intense—features which are exacerbated by his use of solid backgrounds and the unusual perspective imposed upon them.

Artwork by Miles Aldridge

What is contemporary art?

Contemporary art refers to avant-garde or innovative art created in the recent past or present day. The exact starting point of contemporary art varies depending on the institution, often tied to the founding year of museums or galleries that showcase the style. Contemporary art is characterized by its focus on current ideas, diverse media, and the exploration of new concepts and techniques.

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Nicolas Party