NICK HUNT: The Lost Coast

NICK HUNT The Lost Coast

WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY

The Lost Coast

N

ick Hunt, grew up in in Newport Beach in the 80’s and early 90’s. As Hunt states, “It was an unknown area to a lot of the world. Development was in progress, but at that point in time it was still mostly open land, populated with surfers and desert-beach dreamers. My work is inspired by this desert-ocean dangerous allure.”

Hunt’s work, while abstract, conjures a sense of history - both in their Light and Space influences and in the the rough beauty of the objects themselves. The scumbled, dented, sometimes bullet riddled surfaces reveal layers of color, painted on metal, and hint at a romantic complexity beneath the glossy enameled surfaces.

Hunt spent a lot of time in Mexico as a boy, where he got to know Billy Al Bengston, Peter Alexander, Chuck Arnoldi, and Laddie John Dill, who would come down to visit his father’s house on the Sea of Cortez. “I think our unspoken love for this place was what originally bonded us. The open spaces, the danger, the adventure, the feelings of being lost while finding yourself and being perfectly at ease with the nothingness that surrounds you. The undeniable beauty in a place with such minimal resources was captivating.”

That same feeling of exploration and adventure is what drew Hunt to California Art at a very early age. “The at times dangerous exploration of materials and search for the unknown possibilities of beauty - like Chuck with the chainsaw, Billy with his Dentos, Peter with resin and Laddie with sand and light.”

“Since I was a kid, the idea of being an artist, because of the artists I knew and admired, was not always the most glamorous. You made art because it was all you wanted and could do. So being an artist in California came with a sense of prideful hopelessness. It’s obviously changed now, but that sense of undeniable purpose in an area that seemed lost to the rest of the world inspired me as something wonderful, meaningful, and for me.”

Is this not a target? (Red on Gold), 2019, oil based acrylic on anodized aluminum in painted artist frame, 50 x 50 inches

Is this not a target? (White on Gold), 2018, oil based acrylic on anodized aluminum in painted artist frame, 50 x 50 inches

Is this not a target? (Red on Blue), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum in custom artist frame, 48 x 48 inches

Is this not a target? (Navy Blue on Gold), 2019, oil based acrylic on anodized aluminum in painted artist frame, 50 x 50 inches

Billy, 2019, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 48� diameter

Chuck, 2019, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 48� diameter

Caliber Abstraction (Magenta on Blue #1), 2017, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 48� diameter

The Lost Coast

N

icholas Hunt (born 1985) has been inspired and mentored by some of the most eminent artists of Southern California, from Billy Al Bengston and Peter Alexander to Andy Moses. He has invented an original form of abstract sculpture, a combination of making and damaging, the painstaking and the uncontrolled.

Each piece is crafted to perfection—laser-cut, polished, anodized, and painted with enamel—before being punctured and scarred by gunshots. Hunt regards this as an analogy for the human experience, the forming of character: “Even though the process of creation is quite destructive, the outcome is something strong, beautiful, uplifting, and positive”. With works such as Is this not a target?”: Black on Gold, he sets up a dialogue with both the Hard Edge Abstraction and Neo-Dada movements in recent art, as though refracting Kenneth Noland’s chevrons and targets through the later work of Jasper Johns. “I only made ten of these (varying in color) and that’s all I plan on making,” he writes. “I named them after Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) because unlike any other artist who painted a target, I actually used it as a target as well . . . so not only is this a painting of a target, but it is an actual target.”

Peter, 2019, Shotgun pellets, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 48� diameter

Laddie, 2019, Shotgun pellets, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 48� diameter

Serious painting (Candy Pink on Black #1), 2019, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 60 x 48 inches

Is this not a target? (White on Red), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum in custom artist frame, 48 x 48 inches

Serious, Painting (golden sunset on black #1), 2019, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 60 x 48 inches

Serious painting (white on black #1), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 60 x 48 inches

Javier Peláez, Broken Tree #1, 2019, oil on linen, 62.9” x 47.5”

Daybreak, 2017, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 48 x 96 inches

Javier Peláez, Broken Tree #9 a-f, 2019, oil on paper, 21” x 17” framed

Sun Burst, 2019, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 60� diameter

Caliber Abstraction (Navy Blue on Burnt Gold #1), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 36� diameter

Is this not a target? (White on Blue #1), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum in custom artist frame, 48 x 48 inches

Is this not a target? (White on Blue #2), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum in custom artist frame, 48 x 48 inches

Is this not a target? (White on Red), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum in custom artist frame, 48 x 48 inches

Javier Pelรกez, Vapor #1, Broken Tree #1 & Broken Tree #2

Javier Peláez, Broken Tree #4, 2019, oil on linen, 62.9” x 47.5”

Three amigos (Black), 2018, oil based enamel on anodized aluminum, 68 x 24 inches

WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY