Overview
Lives: Naarm (Melbourne)
Necessitating a slowed-down process of looking, Nicholas Aplin’s paintings rework the edges ofAustralia’s urban landscape through studied colour compositions, restricted palettes, and flattened perspectives. His works emerge from photographs and sketches of the inner-city, where he isolates and reframes municipal structures, residential towers, community sports grounds, public parks and forgotten shopping centres. In these spaces, rigid geometries intersect with encroaching flora, exposing a quiet contradiction between architectural order and organic sprawl.
Working with a deliberately limited palette, Aplin abstracts these familiar environments into planes of saturated colour, distilling the scene into patterns and tonal shifts that heighten a sense of estrangement.
Repetition becomes both a formal and conceptual device within his practice, where subjects are revisited, cropped, and reassembled across works, allowing subtle shifts in colour and composition to suggest the fragmentary nature of memory and observation.
Rather than offering direct narratives, Aplin’s works sit in a suspended state - familiar yet distant - inviting the viewer to confront how the disconnection between built and natural environments has become embedded in Australia’s landscape. His paintings resist easy resolution, instead positioning these ordinary, often ignored spaces as sites of tension, control, and quiet reflection.
Nicholas is an expert art installer in our Delivery & Installation Department.
Works
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Nicholas Aplin(Nothing But) 1, 2024Oil Pastel On Stonehenge Kraft
9.6 x 6.3 cmSold -
Nicholas Aplin(Nothing But) 11, 2024Oil Pastel On Stonehenge Kraft
9.6 x 6.3 cm -
Nicholas Aplin(Nothing But) 12, 2024Oil Pastel On Stonehenge Kraft
9.6 x 6.3 cmSold -
Nicholas Aplin(Nothing But) 5, 2024Oil Pastel On Stonehenge Kraft
9.6 x 6.3 cm -
Nicholas Aplin8:23Am Collingwood, 2024Acrylic, Oil Pastel And Charcoal On Board, Framed
70 x 75 cmSold -
Nicholas AplinBarrier Gully, 2025Acrylic on linen71 x 51 cm$ 1,700.00
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Nicholas AplinDesire Lines - Park And Vere, 2024Acrylic On Linen
70 x 70 cmSold -
Nicholas AplinPlaying Field, 2025Acrylic on linen99 x 69 cm$ 2,200.00
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Nicholas AplinRed FernAcrylic on linen40 x 40 cm$ 950.00
Exhibitions
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The Evidence of Things Not Seen
Artists at Chapman & Bailey 19 December 2025 - 31 January 2026To celebrate the end of a huge year we invite our friends and supporters to celebrate with all of us at Chapman & Bailey, with a lively exhibition by artists...Read more -
Creative Energies
The Artists Behind Chapman & Bailey Group Show 13 December 2024 - 8 January 2025Join us for our end of year celebration and special exhibition with staff and friends. Chapman & Bailey started 30 years ago by artists answering the demand for products and...Read more
