Grindrod’s paintings are built around a bold, architectural geometry that both anchors the composition and disrupts it. His use of layered planes, sharp angles, and shifting colour fields creates a dynamic tension between order and spontaneity. This interplay of structure and improvisation invites the viewer into an active visual dialogue with the work.
Nick Grindrod
His compositions evolve through a process of construction, erasure, and re‑working. Surfaces are repeatedly built up and sanded back, revealing traces of earlier decisions and exposing the physical history of the painting. These partially concealed layers function like archaeological strata, offering glimpses into the artist’s intuitive decision‑making. The result is a surface that feels at once deliberate and exploratory.
The primary focus of Grindrod’s practice is the rhythm created by the interaction of colour, form, and edge. Each painting carries its own internal tempo - some pulse with bold, high‑contrast energy, while others settle into quieter, more contemplative harmonies. His palette often shifts between saturated brights and muted neutrals, creating a sense of movement that feels almost musical.
This abstract reconfiguration of space can be read as a reflection on the built environment: its grids, its interruptions, its constant state of flux. Grindrod’s work captures the tension between stability and change, echoing the way contemporary urban life is shaped by both structure and unpredictability. Through this balance, his paintings offer a compelling meditation on how we navigate and reconstruct the spaces around us.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: Solo Exhibition, Gallagher & Turner, Newcastle, UK, 2023 | Construct / Deconstruct, Rhodes Contemporary Art, London, UK, 2022 | New Works, NBB Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2021 | Surface Tension, The Old Bank Vault, London, UK, 2020
AWARDS: Winner, Jackson’s Painting Prize (Shortlisted), 2021 | Selected Artist, The Other Art Fair, multiple editions | Featured Artist, Saatchi Art Rising Stars, 2019
EDUCATION: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University, UK, 2002
Nick Grindrod lives and works in Sheffield, UK.
“My work is built from structure, rhythm and interruption. I am always searching for balance between control and spontaneity, the push and pull of colour, shape and surface. The paintings grow through layering, sanding back and rebuilding, and they carry the history of every decision. This process mirrors the environments we move through each day, constructed, worn, repaired and constantly shifting.”
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