I’m excited to announce, my work will be featured on Urban Art Commission’s Billboard Gallery for the Fall season. The UAC billboard is located across the street from their office, 422 N. Cleveland St. · Memphis, TN 38104
During the past year, the pandemic changed our perception of normal. There was an eeriness to 2020 as the pandemic forced physical distancing, shifting our mental and visible landscape.
Peña's nostalgia to be with kindred spirits sparked his idea to collaborate with family and friends. The combined efforts in E C H O E S are varied. Some are direct, working together on one piece, while others are indirect, separate pieces of art inspired by an idea or preexisting image. Other elements are made as a faint echo, pieced back together with relics influenced by collective memories. The result is a collaborative effort between father/son, husband/wife, father/daughter, mother/son, best friends, and grandmother/mother/grandchild.
Nick & Cat Peña
January 15 to February 12:
Join Nick & Cat Peña Friday January 22, 2021 at 6pm for a Zoom Artist Talk.
The artists will discuss their latest exhibit AtTEST, a site specific installation work at 2021 Projects.
To join the talk (Click Zoom).
Possible Impossible Possible, watercolor, acrylic, sintra mat. 24 inch diameter, 2019
Tipton Gallery (ETSU) / 126 Spring St., Johnson City, TN October 29 - December 11th (Reception: October 30 6:00pm - 8:00pm)
Vanessa Gonzalez, Nick Peña
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the ETSU Department of Art & Design and Slocumb Galleries in partnership with the Language & Culture Resource Center (LCRC) and the Multicultural Center presents New Latinx South: Vanessa Gonzalez and Nick Peña exhibition at Tipton Gallery with Dia de los Muertos celebration on October 30, Friday at 6 p.m. The physical exhibitions are accompanied by various virtual public events that can be viewed via ETSU Slocumb Galleries’ Facebook Page Live or on Zoom: https://etsu.zoom.us/myslocumb... or Zoom ID 710 908 4999.
In keeping with ETSU Slocumb Galleries mission to provide venues and access to contemporary art within the region through innovative and diverse exhibitions that promote artistic excellence, cultural awareness and creative thinking , we present Nostalgia by Gonzalez and house, non-house... geometry and echos by Peña from October 29 to December 18, 2020 at Tipton Gallery.
Peña’s house, non-house... geometry and echos mixed media architectural paintings with Sintra circular matts continues to address issues of inequality, housing, and social landscape. He visualizes the ideals of the ‘American Dream,’ and its contrasting tensions with the climate and environmental landscape.
Funded by the Tennessee Arts Commission's Arts Build Communities (ABC) and Arts Projects Support (APS) grants, with the ETSU SGA Student Activities Allocation Committee (SAAC), in partnership with the Multicultural Center, Langston Centre, Language & Culture Resource Centre, and Hispanic American Student Community Alliance (HASCA). Physical distancing inside the galleries is in place, facial masks are required and available free of charge, with the addition of air filters inside the galleries, we are committed to ensuring the safety of staff and visiting public.
For further information contact Slocumb Galleries’ Director Karlota I. Contreras-Koterbay via email contrera@etsu.edu or 423.483.3179. All exhibitions and events are open and free to the public. The Tipton Gallery is open for public viewing on Thursdays and Fridays 5 to 7 p.m. and on First Fridays from 6 to 8 p.m. Request to visit by appointment are also available, please contact Slocumb Galleries’ Director to schedule an appointment after hours. Please visit Etsu.edu/cas/art/galleries for future events.
shelf life, by Nick Peña is a multimedia installation that depict the ‘landscape’ and housing issues in the US. The chevron geometric patterns juxtaposed with the organic ‘mounds’ that are situated high up and ‘out of reach’ reflect various dichotomies such as “stability vs. instability or representation vs. abstraction” as well as the ‘haves vs. have nots.’ Peña’s ‘house, non-house... geometry and echos’ mixed media architectural paintings with Sintra circular matting that continues to address issues of inequality, housing, and social landscape. He visualizes the ideals of the ‘American Dream,’ and its contrasting tensions with the climate and environmental landscape.
Join me at Sager Braudis Gallery in Columbia, MO on Friday, Feb. 7th from 6-9pm. I will have the honor of showing with fellow artists Chris Dahlquist, Laura Moriarty, Jennifer Viviano!
Link to talk: https://crosstownarts.org/residency/resident-artists/nick-pena/
1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280
Memphis, TN United States
Crosstown Arts summer session resident artists Lucy McKeon, Steve Bellin-Oka, Nick Peña, Pamela Allen, and Pete Hoffecker Mejía will present artist talks in the Pecha Kucha style.
The key to Pecha Kucha is the 20×20 format: all presenters show 20 slides for 20 seconds each, making each presentation concise and dynamic. If you’re wondering what “Pecha Kucha” means, it draws its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat.”
Pecha Kucha Nights began in Tokyo as an opportunity for artists, designers and architects to show samples of their work through a concise, timed presentation in a relaxed community setting. Over the past 10 years, these events have expanded to hundreds of cities across the globe, and often include a variety of community members sharing a wide array of interesting (and sometimes hilarious) topics.
The exhibition theme is Unfolding: The Next Chapter in Memphis and speaks to the progression of artists, as well as the progression of Memphis in the 200 years the city has existed.
The exhibit is curated by Memphian Kenneth Wayne Alexander, a local artist who fuses traditional acrylic, anime and digital art styles to create a new vision he calls NOVI. An alumnus of Overton High School, Alexander displayed an evident passion for creating at a young age. As NOVI, Alexander engages communities by directly involving them in project and studio processes, and is driven to create better platforms and empowerment of the community.
Other exhibitions curated by Alexander include Surreal Kingdoms, a compelling video installation in conjunction with The Art of Video Games at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Frame Traps at Crosstown Arts about the importance of youth development within gaming; and Vanguard Wonderland at the Orange Mound Gallery, detailing the power of women on Earth.
Alexander has traveled the US expanding his talent, exhibition prowess and narrative to better himself and others through the power of art.
Artists displaying work in the show include: Lindsey Bailey, Anna Bearman, Monica Bushong, Richard Echols, Beth Edwards, Jay Etkin, Amber George, Elisha Gold, Jed Jackson, Chuck Johnson, Paula Kovarik, Drea L. Powell, Tad Lauritzen Wright, Ziggy Mack, Lawrence Matthews, Quinn McGowan, Lester Julian Merriweather, Lacy Mitcham Veteto, Carl Moore, Darlene Newman, Nick Peña, Terri Phillips, Aisha Raison, Amy Beth Rice, Juan Rojo, Mia Saine, Kiara Sally, Najee Strickland, Eso Tolson, Beth Winterburn, Quantavious "Toonky" Worship.
This exhibit is supported by an ArtsFirst grant from First Tennessee Foundation.
ArtsMemphis works to sustain Memphis’ world-renowned cultural vitality and strengthen local communities through the arts. In 2018, we awarded 60 grants per year to 75 local arts groups and artists, totaling nearly $2.4 million. All of this is possible because of the support we receive from 1,300 generous donors and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Cyclical, a solo show by Nick Peña, opens Saturday, January 5th at Channel To Channel. Opening will be from 6-9pm. Show runs through Saturday February 23.
Nick Peña’s works range from painting to multimedia installations that question the ever-changing psychological landscape of America; asking the viewer to re-examine their perceptions of the “American Dream” and the effects that pursuit has on our environment. Persistently researching these topics has led him to create landscapes built on dichotomies: past and present, representation and abstraction, analog and digital, and stability and instability.
The Department of Art and Design is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by Nick Peña, a visual artist living and working in Memphis, TN. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. He studied abroad at the Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland, and received his Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO.
Currently, Peña is an associate professor of art in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN. Peña has had six solo exhibitions in the last five years, and has participated in twenty National and Juried exhibitions since 2007. His 21st exhibition is scheduled for January 2019.
I'm happy to announce my works inclusion in the fifth annual Art of the South exhibition, presented by Number: The exhibition includes 58 artists residing in many areas of the south, including: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington DC.
The exhibition was juried by Brian Jobe, artist, educator, independent curator, and non-profit co-director of Locate Arts based in Nashville, TN.
I CAN'T GO TO THE OPENING TONIGHT BUT YOU SHOULD!!!!!
Curatorial Statement:
Land-Sc(r)aping: Development, Community, Affect is a group exhibition that examines the concept of “environment” as an interstice between U.S. politics, economy, land ownership, materiality, and its communal and individuated impacts. The double-term of the exhibition title suggests that whenever there is a curatorial effort placed upon land, there is simultaneous consequence. Each artist selected for this exhibition inspects relational conditions between development and human impact/traces, inviting the viewer to consider their own presence and involvement within these larger socio-economic systems. The exhibition, itself, will also grow and change between its opening on May 4th, 2018 and its closing on July 12th: new artworks will be added, the gallery space will shift, and remnants from workshops and lectures will remain in order to actuate development within the gallery. In this way, I hope to produce an organism of an exhibition that may operate as site that, not only collaboratively informs the viewer and participating artists, but also recognizes its own envelopment within a cycle of scaping and scraping land and material and bodies. - Jessica Borusky, Artistic Director of Living Arts
The event is free to the public. Opening May 4th, 2018, at Living Arts of Tulsa.
Participating Artists:
Bill White
Aaron Stephan
Ellen Mueller
Seann Starowitz
Valery Lyman
Nick Pena
Tali Weinberg
Caitlin Horsmon
Blights Out!
Join me at Sager Braudis Gallery in Columbia, MO on Friday Feb. 2nd from 6-9pm. I will have the honor of showing with fellow artists Kait Arndt, Craig Albright: Painting, Drawing and Building, Joel Sager, and Patti Shanks! Chat with the artists, view their work, and enjoy a drink courtesy N.H. Scheppers Distributing Company and Les Bourgeois Vineyards.
"Better Homes and Gardens" will showcase new work by Natalie Hoffmann, Alex Paulus, and Nick Peña. Featuring collage, painting, and mixed media works of art! This event is free and open to the public.
Opening reception is from 6-9pm on Friday, Oct. 20th. The show will be available for viewing on Saturday, Oct. 21st Noon-5pm. At Crosstown Arts 430 N. Cleveland Friday October 20th 6-9pm.
I'm very excited to facilitate "Open Crit" tonight at Crosstown Arts. Come join me and three local artists' Katie Diley, Lily Anderson, Judith Dierkes tonight to explore their work through constructive criticism.
More info below cited here: http://crosstownarts.org/calendar/open-crit-16/:
Artist installation 5:30-6 p.m.
Discussion 6-8 p.m.
Facilitator: Nick Pena
Presenting artists: Katie Diley, Lily Anderson, Judith Dierkes
Crosstown Arts’ Open Crit series, organized in partnership with ArtsMemphis, is a monthly critique event where visual artists are invited to bring new and/or in-progress studio work for critical feedback and group discussion particular to each artist’s practice.
A dedicated facilitator with experience in a group critique setting will guide discussion for each critique event, which will include up to 4 artists’ work, with 15-25 minutes devoted to the work of each.
All visual artists and anyone interested in joining the discussion are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise, prior professional art experience or background/education in fine art. Participation is free and open to the public. Input during the critiques from everyone in attendance is welcomed and encouraged.
No formal preparation is necessary for participating artists, who will have an opportunity to introduce and contextualize their work on view at the beginning of each critique. Participating artists are only asked to be open to (and interested in) considering reactions to their work by the group, which will always be done in a supportive, constructive and casual environment, but could at the same time be challenging.
Check out my work in New American Paintings #130 online or at your local newsstand now. I was 1 of 40 artists featured from almost 1000 applicants.
I'm conducting an artist led tour for over 80 members for both the State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now exhibition and the Mallory/Wurtzburger: A Retrospective exhibition on Wednesday, March 22nd at 6pm.
January 29 – March 26, 2017
Organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Over the course of one year, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s curatorial team logged more than 100,000 miles, traversing the United States to visit nearly 1,000 artists. Traveling to communities large and small, the museum found artists whose work engages broad audiences, demonstrates a high level of skill, and sparks conversation about important issues of our times. This one-of-a-kind exhibition, drawing from nearly every region, offers an unusually diverse and nuanced look at contemporary American art. State of the Art brings together works in a variety of mediums, including painting, photography, fiber, sculpture, video, ceramics, installation, and more. The exhibition examines how today’s artists are informed by the past, innovate with materials old and engage deeply with issues relevant to our community.
Nick Pena, Infinite Loop -caught in a condition that can never be met,
36"x36"
Watercolor, Cyanotype, and Sintra
January 22 – April 9, 2017
Mallory/Wurtzburger Galleries
Sponsored by: Suzanne and Neely Mallory and Mary and Charles Wurtzburger
In keeping with the Mallory/Wurtzburger series’ emphasis on exhibiting the work of local and regional contemporary artists, what better way to highlight Memphis art during the run of State of the Art than through a celebration of the artists from past Mallory/Wurtzburger exhibitions? This retrospective of Mallory/Wurtzburger artists celebrates the exhibition series with new works from some of the artists that have participated from 2008-2015, such as Kate Bradley, Jim Buchman, Joyce Gingold, Martha Kelly, Pixy Liao, Carl Moore, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Kong Wee Pang, Nick Peña, Brian Russell, and more.
photo credit: A.Lever Studio
I will be leading a tour of the current exhibitions, Mallory/Wurtzburger: A Retrospective & State of the Art. Meet in the Catmur Foyer for a tour at 2pm. Free with admission
For more info: Dixon.org
This Wednesday (Feb. 22nd) at the University of Mississippi Art Dept. I'll be presenting as a VVAP (Virtual Visiting Artist Program). The presentation will start at 5:00pm in Meek 120.
Memphis in May 2017 Poster unveiling honoring the country of Colombia
INFINITE LOOP|ˈinfənit| |lo͞op| 1 caught in a condition that can never be met.
January 22 – April 9, 2017
Mallory/Wurtzburger Galleries
Sponsored by: Suzanne and Neely Mallory and Mary and Charles Wurtzburger
In keeping with the Mallory/Wurtzburger series’ emphasis on exhibiting the work of local and regional contemporary artists, what better way to highlight Memphis art during the run of State of the Art than through a celebration of the artists from past Mallory/Wurtzburger exhibitions? This retrospective of Mallory/Wurtzburger artists celebrates the exhibition series with new works from some of the artists that have participated from 2008-2015, such as Kate Bradley, Jim Buchman, Joyce Gingold, Martha Kelly, Pixy Liao, Carl Moore, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Kong Wee Pang, Nick Peña, Brian Russell, and more.
I have the pleasure of participating as a panelist for an upcoming event entitled Hustle: Fine Tuning your Studio Practice, on Tuesday, April 12 from 6-8:00 at Crosstown Arts located: 438 N. Cleveland St. Memphis, TN 38104
Info:
Your studio practice is the front line of your art career. Making your work needs to be the highest item on your priority list, but how do you get it there and keep it there with all of the other pressures and obligations in your life? Learn some secrets to success for skyrocketing your career while keeping your lifestyle in balance.
Session hosted by Terry Lynn, Susan Maakestad, Lawrence Matthews & Nick Pena
Complimentary food and drinks
Hustle: professional development for artists is a free program organized by ArtsMemphis, UrbanArt Commission, and Crosstown Arts. The series will provide visual artists with information, resources, and opportunities to support them in the development of their professional careers. Workshop topics will range from positive studio practices to pricing work and navigating gallery representation. Questions? Contact Mary Jo Karimnia at maryjo@crosstownarts.org
The Beverly and Sam Ross Gallery at Christian Brothers University announces an exhibition of new paintings by NickPeña entitled “Crosscut” August 21 through October 8, 2015.
The Gallery is open an available for viewing Monday - Thursday: 7:45 a.m. - 11:00 p.m
650 East Parkway S.
Memphis, TN 38104
Email: library@cbu.edu
Phone: (901) 321-3432
