Future Paint: Nick Fudge’s Emergence from the Underground

Installation view.  

By LARA PAN May 1, 2024 

In an exciting new exhibition, Kelly-McKenna Gallery in Spring Lake, New Jersey, offers a fresh perspective into the future of mark-making within a society heavily reliant on technology – aptly named Future Paint. The show, which runs from April 11 - May 19, 2024, highlights three British multidimensional artists well situated in their fields: Nick Fudge, Charley Peters, and KOMPLY. The artists tackle complex topics such as the relationship between art and technology, the ever-developing digital landscape, and metamodernism. 

Installation view.  

Especially enthralling is the re-emergence of Nick Fudge after decades of paying homage to Marcel Duchamp and “working underground.” The Young British Artist (YBA) is a Goldsmith College, London, alumni – having worked alongside Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Liam Gillick, among ​​others – graduating in 1988. His advisors, Michael Craig-Martin and Jon Thompson, expected Fudge to attain immediate success. 2 days before his graduate show, Fudge destroyed all of his artworks in an act of rebellious defiance. 

For 25 years, Fudge maintained distance from the international art scene. He created works but kept their contents just as hidden – his paintings in storage and his digital works on archaic hard drives – as he traveled across the United States. It wasn’t until 2016 that he emerged from the underground, participating in a few shows. In 2024, at 60 years old, Nick Fudge has begun a fresh career transcending artistic boundaries. He considers what it means to be an artist, and leans heavily into Modernist painters such as Picasso and Braque as he reconfigures their paintings with a contemporary lens. 

Installation view.  

Nick Fudge conceived Future Paint in collaboration with the gallery. Future Paint transcends the confines of traditional painting processes, offering a thought-provoking exploration of creativity in the digital age where the boundaries between human and machine blur, and the future of painting is revealed. Through intricate geometric patterning, Fudge reflects on the artist’s manipulation of space-time, interweaving multiple dimensions into his compositions. His re-emergence after decades of underground work adds an intriguing dimension to the show, transcending traditional painting processes to envision the future of art in the digital age. Future Paint transcends the confines of traditional painting processes, offering a thought-provoking exploration of creativity in the digital age where the boundaries between human and machine blur, and the future of painting are revealed. On view through May 19, 2024. WM