Nicolas Party

Nicolas Party is a contemporary Swiss painter and sculptor known for his vivid figurative scenes executed in soft pastels. Party reinvents traditional artistic genres such as portraiture, landscape and still life through surreal compositions and a colourful palette.

In November 2022, Party's Blue Sunset (2018) sold for $6,600,000 at Christie’s. This set a record for the most expensive price ever paid for a work by the artist at auction.

Party was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1980. Growing up in a small village by a lake in his hometown, Party found early inspiration in the natural landscapes surrounding him. As a teenager, he was drawn to the illustrations of Swiss vineyards he saw depicted on wine labels, stating 'those little watercolour drawings on the stickers showed me how an artist can put emotion into a landscape...Photography reflects the reality, but the painting of a place holds the emotions of its maker, too.'

Party studied cinema, 3D animation and computer design at the Lausanne School of Art, and later completed his MFA at the Glasgow School of Art. He worked as a graffiti and mural artist in the early phase of his career while practising traditional landscape painting. One can still trace the ephemeral nature and techniques of street art culture in his work. Guided by his mentor John Armleder, a great advocate for Andy Warhol’s practice who took part in the Fluxus movement, Party found his purpose more in the painting process than the result itself.

In their breadth of colour and emotional resonance, Party's contemporary landscapes show the influence of Swiss painters such as Ferdinand Holder and Felix Vallotton, while his still-life works share the analytical approach of Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso. His still lifes are sensual and expressive, his landscapes unreal yet palpable. These oppositions draw the viewer into Party’s captivating world. In his paintings, the simplest of subjects become a window into the metaphysical.