Two Portrait Series by Nick Aitken — Art Opening at The Academy

Art Lovers — come by The Academy on Friday, April 9 to see in person, Nick Aitken's two portrait series Pretty Masculine and The Wallflowers.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Each reserved ticket is good for a group of up to (6) people to tour the Club and view the collections. Please keep in mind there may be a short wait to enter the building due to social distancing protocols and capacity limits.

Academy Members may also make a Club Reservation if they wish to stay and socialize after viewing the collection.

For those who prefer a virtual experience, Aitken will be hosting a live Instagram story at 7pm on April 9, so if you can’t attend in person, please join us on Instagram for a tour! Aitken will be telling stories about his work, what inspired him, showing you what is available for your home art collection!

ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS (FROM THE ARTIST)

This new exhibition will include two totally different bodies of work I’ve created over the past two years. Both works are completely different versions of portraiture. Photographs printed on metal are of a series called Pretty Masculine, and paintings from a series entitled The Wallflowers. 

PRETTY MASCULINE was created in 2019. I designed this photo series to connect the contrast between femininity and masculinity. I took portraits of men using fresh cut flowers and foliage from the streets in San Francisco, my patio garden and the flower market to create different images that represented these men with organic prettiness and are textual representations. The flowers and texture from the leaves I used to create an accessory for each man’s face, in the end it created masks, helmets, and collars that accentuate their more pretty side, a side that sometimes goes unnoticed. The portraits are printed on metal with a high gloss finish.

THE WALLFLOWERS was created during Covid-19 lockdown, from the beginning of the pandemic to today and is still being created. This series of paintings was made to keep me company during the lonely existence of no work or play, a time of solitude while living alone in 2020. The paintings are acrylic on canvas and oil on canvas. The style of the paintings are impressionistic and evocative of deep feelings. Some of my paintings are inspired by the music and characters from The Rocky Horror picture show, a sound track I listened to a lot as I painted throughout 2020. The Wallflowers portraits came from the heart, I’ve named them, and have gotten quite used to them being around. It's time to move forward and share them with everyone, they sure have kept me company during these strange and hard times and I hope they will go on to keep others company as well. I hope you can take one of my characters home and talk to them like I did and help you get more connected to your soul too.

ABOUT NICK AITKEN

Nick is a Bay Area native and currently resides in San Francisco and is 100% Californian. He started modeling as a teen, and became a stylist before getting a degree from The Academy of Art University (AAU), studying fashion photography. He has lived a colorful life to say the least and has been an artist since childhood. He later taught in the photography department at AAU. Being part of the queer community of San Francisco is a major part of who he is, which was a fantanastical way to see the world and impacted how he created his art.

Nick says: “After a long career as a stylist, I started playing with the camera, and have never looked back. I like to come up with a concept and make it come alive naturally. My photography is inspired by daydreams, and my appreciation for the small things we see and can’t quite get a grasp of, like a painting. I create a scenario and produce it as accurately as I can remember so the viewer can feel perhaps the same thing I did, or even better come up with their own story. Bringing my work to fruition pushes my growth as an artist continuously, and my own sense of self. I want to capture history and everything beautiful to me, so when I’m gone my work and vision will somehow remain.” 

http://www.nickaitken.net

ABOUT THE ACADEMY

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