
John Nicholson experiments with colour, and his colourful works have been described as a kind of 'architectural, optical art'. Working consistently with various plastics, binding polymers and pigmented Perspex, Nicholson creates sculptures and two-dimensional wall installations in his signature psychedelic palette. Nicholson is interested in the formal properties of light and how light interacts with its environment. His sculptures are often made up of strips of coloured plastic fused together to resemble geological core samples, or the light spectrum frozen in a solid form.
Since graduating from the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, Nicholson has exhibited widely in Melbourne and Sydney. He has held studio residencies at the Bundanon Trust Artist Centre and at OMI International Art Centre in New York. His works are held in public and private collections in Australia and overseas, including in the collections of Artbank, Deutsche Bank, the Univeristy of Queensland Art Museum, Mirvac Corporation as well as in the collections of Goyan City in Seoul and OMI Arts Centre in New York.