John Nixon

Biography

Born Syd­ney, Aus­tralia 1949
Died Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia 2020

John Nixon was a sem­i­nal fig­ure in con­tem­po­rary Aus­tralian abstrac­tion. From 1968, his work was ded­i­cat­ed to the on-going exper­i­men­ta­tion, analy­sis and devel­op­ment of rad­i­cal mod­ernism, min­i­mal­ism, the mono­chrome, con­struc­tivism, non-objec­tive art and the ready­made; which were key ref­er­ence points in his work. Exper­i­men­tal Paint­ing Work­shop (EPW), which the artist named in 1990, but which cov­ers works dat­ing back to 1968, formed the basis of Nixon’s rig­or­ous and long-stand­ing intel­lec­tu­al inves­ti­ga­tion into the mak­ing of art, which over time expand­ed to encom­pass not only paint­ing, but col­lage, pho­tog­ra­phy, video, dance and exper­i­men­tal music per­for­mance.

Nixon exhib­it­ed reg­u­lar­ly and wide­ly through­out his career. He held more than 70 solo exhi­bi­tions since 2001, includ­ing the Muse­um Gegen­stands­freier Kun­st Ottern­dorf, Ottern­dorf and the Auck­land Art Gallery, Auck­land. He rep­re­sent­ed Aus­tralia at Doc­u­men­ta 7, Kas­sel, Ger­many in 1982.

Nixon’s works are held in every major state muse­um col­lec­tion in Aus­tralia, and select­ed inter­na­tion­al pub­lic col­lec­tions include: Solomon R. Guggen­heim Muse­um, New York; Muse­um Sztu­ki, Lodz; Foire Nation­al d’Art Con­tem­po­rain, Paris; Stiftung fur Konkrete Kun­st, Reut­lin­gen; The Artists Muse­um, Lodz; Hern­ing Kun­st­mu­se­umm, Den­mark; Daim­ler Chrysler Col­lec­tion, Berlin; Kun­st­mu­se­um Esberg, Den­mark; Espace d’Art Con­tem­po­rain, Demigny; and Nation­al Gallery of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Seoul.

CV
Bib­li­og­ra­phy

Exhibitions

John Nixon

Artist of the Mono­chrome 1968 — 2020

18th October – 13th December 2025
Anna Schwartz Gallery

Stephen Bram, Angela de la Cruz, Emi­ly Floyd, Joseph Kosuth, Angel­i­ca Mesi­ti, Cal­lum Mor­ton, Jan Nel­son, John Nixon, Rose Nolan, David Noo­nan, Chi­haru Shio­ta, Jen­ny Wat­son, Justene Williams

THE OBJECT SELF-DEFINED: IN HOUSE 2025

John Nixon

Monochrome/​Piano 1992

15th September – 15th October 2022
Connors Connors Gallery

John Nixon

White Paint­ings

13th August – 17th September 2022
Anna Schwartz Gallery

Peter Tyn­dall, Jen­ny Wat­son, Stieg Pers­son, John Nixon

Light & Darkness:Late mod­ernism and the Pow­er Collection

10th January – 27th November 2022
Chau Chak Wing Museum

John Nixon

John Nixon in the Lyon Collection

23rd June – 19th December 2021
Lyon Housemuseum

John Nixon

Groups + Pairs 2016 – 2020

21st March – 19th December 2020
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

EPW: Select­ed Paintings

5th July – 18th August 2018
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

Yel­low Mono­chrome (Japan)

1st – 24th September 2016
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

EPW: Var­i­ous Paintings

5th February – 21st March 2015
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

EPW

11th July – 24th August 2013
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

EPW: Sil­ver

28th September – 5th November 2011
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

EPW: Poly­chrome Applied Painting

16th April – 9th May 2009
Anna Schwartz Gallery

John Nixon

EPW: Sil­ver

1st – 24th June 2006
Anna Schwartz Gallery

Available Works

John Nixon

Self Por­trait Non-Objec­tive Composition, cir­ca 1985
enam­el paint on Masonite
9060 cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled, 2014
Enam­el on two canvases
8175 cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled, 2014
enam­el on MDF
7675 cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled, 2014
enam­el on three canvases
6870cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled (White Monochrome), 2014
Enam­el paint, wood and ceram­ic tiles on canvas
60406cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled, 2012
enam­el and wood on canvas
7545 cm

John Nixon

White Mono­chrome, 2011
enam­el on can­vas and wood
60753.2 cm

John Nixon

Sil­ver Monochrome, 2010
enam­el on can­vas and wood
30.5234cm

John Nixon

Sil­ver Monochrome, 2006
enam­el and bot­tle tops on MDF
9160 cm

John Nixon

Sil­ver Mono­chrome (with webbing), 2004
enam­el on hes­s­ian with hessian
6161 cm

John Nixon

Orange Mono­chrome, 1997
enam­el on masonite
244244 cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled (Red Mono­chrome with Cof­fee Pot), 1995
enam­el paint on wood, cof­fee pot, wood­en shelf
576212 cm
Pho­to: Chris­t­ian Capurro

John Nixon

Self Por­trait, Non-Objec­tive Com­po­si­tion (Night), 1987
enam­el and eggshell on Masonite
91.561 cm

John Nixon

White Mono­chrome, 1986 — 1990
enam­el on woven jute
7252.5 cm

John Nixon

Unti­tled (White Cross), 1985
enam­el paint on hessian
6048 cm

John Nixon

Red Star, 1979
acrylic on wood
59.562.50.4 cm

Library
News

John Nixon: Groups + Pairs 2016 – 2020

John Nixon: Groups + Pairs 20162020 opened only a cou­ple of days prior […]

Read More

The Joy of the Gestalt: John Nixon 1949 – 2020

Before I met John Nixon I had already seen John Nixon. John was the sub­ject of […]

Read More

John Nixon Test­ed the Vital­i­ty of Geo­met­ric Abstraction

“… Nixon was not only an artist but a cura­tor, musi­cian, gal­lerist, small-press pub­lish­er and […]

Read More

John Nixon: profile

Iter­a­tions: John Nixon Not far from where St Kil­da beach forms a firm line against the […]

Read More

John Nixon, Stephen Bram & Rose Nolan, Cook­ing with John’ curat­ed by Amalia Lin­do & Jacque­line Stojanović

Hay­dens, Mel­bourne 10 — 12 More­land Road Brunswick East, 3057 Exhi­bi­tion open­ing: 22 May from 6 – […]

Read More

JOHN NIXON: MONOCHROME/PIANO 1992

Pre­sent­ed in the Fitzroy Town Hall by Con­nors Con­nors, John Nixon’s Monochrome/​Piano 1992 is […]

Read More

JAN NEL­SON, JOHN NIXON & VIVI­ENNE SHARK LEWITT: MEL­BOURNE NOW

The sec­ond edi­tion of Mel­bourne Now will be pre­sent­ed at The Ian Pot­ter Centre […]

Read More

Night­shifts at Bux­ton Contemporary

night­shifts 26 May – 29 Octo­ber 2023 Bux­ton Con­tem­po­rary night­shifts con­sid­ers the impor­tance of […]

Read More

John Nixon | MILK­STARS | Sound Con­stel­la­tions In The Chartwell Collection

MILK­STARSSound Con­stel­la­tions In The Chartwell Col­lec­tion17 August – 20 Octo­ber 2024Te Uru Wait­ākere Contemporary […]

Read More