Adrian Nivola | Intimate Interiors

ADRIAN NIVOLA

ADRIAN NIVOLA

INTIMATE INTERIORS

TAYLOE PIGGOTT GALLERY

INTIMATE INTERIORS

A painter and sculptor, Adrian Nivola tackles a variety of themes, working from memory and driven by an effort to convey an enduring quality of light in ephemeral scenes. Seeking to transform color into light, Nivola portrays the atmosphere of interiors where figures reside in solitude, part and parcel of the light they radiate. The artist derives inspiration from a dialogue with a variety of great painters from the past, chief among them Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. Nivola’s interest lies in the timeless preoccupations articulated by Bonnard, who Nivola quotes as having said, “I’m trying to do what I have never done - give the impression one has on entering a room: one sees everything and at the same time nothing.” Another of Bonnard’s observations was, “There has always been color but color has yet to become light…Our God is light.” According to Nivola, an exciting challenge proposed by painters like Bonnard is not to try to illustrate a light scenario but to generate light from the color itself. That is, the color relationships must generate vibrations and influence one another to create a unique pictorial light.

The resulting work, in paint and pastel, captures moments that feel resplendently timeless. Working from memory, Nivola paints the people closest to him in the context of a shared interior space. With a lush impasto technique his delicate dabs of pigment are tactile and luminous. According to Nivola, “I’m more determined to capture the state of mind of the figure than a likeness.” His subjects are caught in the quiet act of introspection.

Similarly quiet, in delicately layered pastel landscapes Nivola articulates the vast expanse of valleys in Idaho, where the sublime scale of the Western American landscape becomes a foil for the sparse and unlikely structures of its inhabitants. Nivola’s mastery of scale is evident, where he captures a breadth of infinite distance on a small format. A third subject which engages Nivola’s eye and hand is the ephemeral light on the jerseys of horse jockeys which

he studies at the Belmont Racetrack. The sumptuous palette and accent on costume recalls Degas’s pastels of the races.

A simultaneous engagement in multiple mediums and techniques suits Nivola who grew up under the influence of his artist grandparents. The Sardinian-born sculptor Costantino Nivola was celebrated for his large-scale sandcast murals and his grandmother Ruth Guggenheim Nivola created jewelry from silk and metal thread. Through the legacy of his grandparents, Nivola inherited a formative philosophy of life in art. Born in 1977, Nivola began to take his professional artistic ambitions seriously at the age of 18 when he went to work for the well-known artist Caio Fonseca in Pietrasanta, Italy. He later earned a master’s degree at the New York Studio School in 2008 after graduating with a BFA with distinction in painting at Yale. Nivola’s work has been exhibited at many galleries and institutions including the Yale University Art & Architecture Gallery, New Haven, CT; The Paul Dietrich Gallery, Boston, MA; The Painting Center, New York, NY; and The Drawing Room, in East Hampton, NY.

Right: Nivola’s Studio in Brookyln

Above: Nivola’s home and studio in Brooklyn

MOTHER AND BABY , 2022

Oil on canvas

14 x 11 inches

ON THE BRINK OF A BATH , 2023

Oil on canvas

48 x 24 inches

NIGHTTIME INTERIOR WITH A BABY , 2023

Pastel on cardboard

7 x 7 inches

NONNA READING AT NIGHT , 2023

Oil on canvas

36 x 36 inches

AROUND TEA TIME , 2023

Oil on canvas

10 x 9 1/2 inches

NONNA AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE , 2023

Oil on canvas

12 x 12 inches

NONNA IN A RED SHAWL , 2023

Pastel on paper

4 1/2 x 5 inches

NONNA ON A RAINY DAY , 2023

Pastel on paper

12 x 9 inches

DUSK INTERIOR WITH A BOY , 2023

Oil on canvas

10 x 9 inches

AFTER A BATH , 2023

6 1/2 x 5 inches

Pastel on paper

BLUE NUDE , 2023 Pastel on paper

6 1/2 x 5 inches

STILL LIFE WITH APPLES , 2023

Oil on canvas

14 x 16 inches

STILL LIFE WITH CEZANNE’S SON , 2023

Oil on canvas

18 x 18 inches

JAY STILL LIFE , 2018

Oil on canvas

6 x 12 inches

PHEASANT STILL LIFE , 2017

Oil on canvas

10 x 20 inches

HORSE AND JOCKEY LATE AFTERNOON , 2020

Pastel on paper

7 x 5 inches

JOCKEYS IN LIMBO , 2023

6 1/4 x 7

Pastel on paper

inches

RACING FOR THE INSIDE RAIL , 2023

Pastel on paper

6 x 12 inches

AFTER A RACE , 2020

Pastel on paper

7 1/2 x 10 inches

AN ALMOND TREE IN BLOSSOM , 2023

Pastel on paper

7 x 7 inches

9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches

VIEW OF GOWANUS CANAL , 2019

Oil on canvas

A VALLEY IN IDAHO , 2020

Pastel on paper

12 x 14 inches

IDAHO, MARCH , 2020

Pastel on paper

6 3/4 x 12 inches

IDAHO LANDSCAPE WITH CHURCH , 2020

12 x 16 inches

Pastel on paper

ADRIAN NIVOLA

American artist, born in 1977

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

EDUCATION

MFA, The New York Studio School, New York, New York, 2006

BA, Cum Laude, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 2000

Yale School of Art at Norfolk Summer Merit Program 1999

AWARDS

Yale University Certificate of Distinction in Fine Arts, 2000

Ellen Batell Stoekel Fellowship, Yale University, 1999

Thomas G. Bergin Fellowship, Yale University, 1998

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2023 Intimate Interiors, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY

2021 AdrianNivola:Paintings&Pastels , Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY (through 2022)

2021 SongsWithoutWords:MusicandDanceinArt, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY (through 2022)

2021 Adrian Nivola: Rare Birds and the Architecture of the Instrument, The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY

2019 The Architecture of the Instrument , Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY

2016 AdrianNivola:Sculpture , The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY

2015 Winter Salon , The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY

2014 Adrian Nivola , The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY

2014 Caio Fonseca, Christine Hiebert, Sharon Horvath, Robert Jakob, Mel Kendrick, Diane Maya, AdrianNivola,AlanShields,DonaldSultan , The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY

2011 Nivola: Three Generations, The Paul Dietrich Gallery at C7A, Cambridge, MA

2011 A Particular Light, The Painting Center, New York, Group Exhibition

2010 Belgravia Gallery, London, Group Exhibition

2008 SITE, 100 Vandam Street Soho, New York, Invitational Group Exhibition

2006 The New York Studio School, MFA Thesis Exhibition

2005 The New York Studio School, Annual Awards Benefit Show (through 2006)

2000 Yale University Art & Architecture Gallery, New Haven, CT, Thesis Exhibit

1999 Yale University Art & Architecture Gallery, New Haven, CT, Three-Person Merit Show