Born in 1985 in Peoria, Illinois, USA
Lives and works in South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA
Nikki Maloof’s paintings depict the world hidden within the mind. Imagined interiors and animals become proxies for the human experience. Her subjects convey existential loneliness, but that loneliness is buoyed by humor, capricious paint handling, and the use of a saturated palette. A squiggle depicting ground meat, a cat’s meow being mistaken for a howl, or a comically disillusioned fish being filleted before our eyes, all draw the viewer’s attention to the melancholic and at times brutal tone of the imagery. At the same time, the paint handling and colors attempt to undermine the dark nature of these images all together. This self-defeating melodrama points to an ambivalent view of existence, a need to laugh and cry even at once.
The paintings begin simply, often catalyzed by a basic formal painting idea. Maloof upsets familiarity and dodges cliché by treating areas of the canvas disparately, and by allowing patterns and textures to exist side by side. Her painting process is a search for and then encouragement of the points where paint overwhelms subject. When this happens, time falls away and unexpected things are unearthed, things that are necessarily unplanned and unnamable, and that seem intrinsic to the material itself.
education
2011
MFA, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2008
BFA, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
solo shows
2023
Skunk Hour, Perrotin, New York, NY
2022
Gutted, Sorry We're Closed, Brussels, Belgium
2020
Nervous Appetite, Nino Mier, Los Angeles, CA
What Did I Know of Your Days, Nikki Maloof and Danielle Orchard, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2019
Caught and Free, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY
2018
Separation Anxiety, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017
Chauve Souris, The Pit, Los Angeles, CA
2016
After Midnight, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY
group shows
2024
Arcadia and Elsewhere, James Cohan, NY
Feels Like Home, JDJ, NY
2023
The Echo of Picasso, Museo Picasso, Málaga, Spain
Pleasure Principle, Francois Ghebaly, NY
2021
Dangerous Pattern, JDJ, Garrison, NY
Best in Show, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY
2020
36 Paintings, Harper's Books, East Hampton, NY
Animal Kingdom, Alex Berggruen Gallery, New York, NY
Mass Ornament, curated by Alison M. Gingeras, South Etna, Montauk, NY
Drawings, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Cheeky: Summer Butts, Marinaro Gallery, New York, NY
2017
30th Anniversary Exhibition, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY
Drawing Island, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Horror Vacui, or The Annihilation of Space, Misako and Rosen, Tokyo, Japan
A Forest on the Edge of Time, The Pit, Los Angeles, CA
2016
The Great Figure Two, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Imagine, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy
2015
Let's Get Figurative, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY
Tiger Tiger, Salon 94, New York, NY
Please Excuse Our Appearance, 247365, New York, NY
Immediate Female, Judith Charles Gallery, New York, NY
2014
Buying Friends: The Kartman Collection, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA), Grand Rapids, Ml
Dont Look Now, Zach Feuer, New York, NY
Other People's Paintings, Torrance Shipman, Brooklyn, NY
Do The Yale Thing, N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, Ml
Shrink It, Pink It, Cathouse FUNeral, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Summer Mix, Thierry Goldberg, New York, NY
Diff'rent Strokes, Louis B. James, New York, NY
Deep Cuts, Anna Kustera, New York, NY
public collections
By Art Matters, Hangzhou, China
awards
2011
- Helen W Winternitz Award in Painting and Printmaking
2010
- Gloucester Landscape Prize