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Nick Mariani
Nicholas Mariani is a painter whose work takes conflict on both global and interpersonal scales, simplifying it down to the bare essential of inhumane and selfish violence. The battle scenes he creates rarely involve humans, instead taking the form of animal fights and vicious dogs, which emphasize the animalistic nature of brutality. While the conflict he speaks of is nonspecific, raw emotion is carried through the creatures’ complex expressions and the energy of his brushwork, which is chaotic, thick, and messy.
Despite their gruesomeness, Mariani’s paintings employ bright colors and comic-book-esque action sequences, speaking to the glorification of violence in male expression and hobbies. Sports, video games, and other interests considered “masculine” champion conflict, injury, and brutality, which is easy for the viewer to separate from real life and disregard out of a systemic lack of empathy. While participating in these extracurriculars and even taking inspiration from skateboarding culture in his artwork, Mariani seeks to critique this apathy rather than enforce it. He finds that by exaggeratingthe violence he sees around him, the viewer is forced to face that reality head on, rather than brush it off. These paintings give room for the viewer to reflect on the relationships they hold with their friends and enemies, realizing how foolish conflict appears once you strip away the facade of politeness.