"Shape-Shifter", a solo show by Nicolas Holiber at UNIT, London

BKR

Brooklyn-based artist Nicolas Holiber, renowned for his large-scale mixed-media work, inaugurates his new solo exhibition Shape-Shifter at Unit London. Holiber’s new body of work presents a collection of large and small scale impasto-style paintings bringing a fresh and fluid sense of ethereal motion. In Shape-Shifter, the artist delivers a heightened level of emotional intensity, painting his subjects as fleshy, warped, and open masses, revealing the complicated intricacy behind the human facade.

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This show marks the first time Holiber works from life; drawing inspiration from Francis Bacon’s iconic portraiture, we find some of his close friends and the artist himself as subjects - their facial features consumed by voluptuous brushes of vibrant colors stemming from his intuitive process of composition.

Like a Shape-Shifter, the works move and transform simultaneously in a batter of expressions both terrifying and pleasing. These new pieces invite us to look beyond superficial aesthetics to get a peek into raw human emotion, asking us how willing we are to look beyond someone or something at face value in order to reach alternate perspectives and find a new sense of reconciliation.

Shape-Shifter opens 26 April, 2022 at Unit London and will run until 28 May 2022