Nicola Tyson (b. 1960, London, England)

Nicola Tyson was born in 1960 in London, England. She attended Chelsea School of Art, St. Martins School of Art and Central/St. Martins School of Art in London and currently lives and works in upstate New York.

Primarily known as a painter, Tyson has also worked with photography, film, performance and the written word. In 2023, Nicola Tyson: Selected Painitngs 1993-2022 was published. In 2011, Tyson released the limited-edition book Dead Letter Men, which is a collection of satirical letters addressing famous male artists. Her unique archive of color photos documenting the London club scene of the late 1970’s — Bowie Nights at Billy’s Club — was the subject of shows, both in New York and London, in 2012 and 2013.

Tyson has mounted solo shows at Petzel Gallery, New York (2024); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2021); The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis (2017); The Drawing Room, London (2017); Nathalia Obadia, Paris (2015); Susanne Vielmetter Gallery, Los Angeles (2014); White Columns, New York (2012), among others.

She has participated in group exhibitions at White Cube, Paris (2023); Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Fort Worth (2022); Capitain Petzel, Berlin (2022); Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2021); The Drawing Room, London (2021); The Drawing Center, New York (2020); Susanne Vielmetter Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Skarstedt, New York (2016); Neue Galerie Graz, Austria (2015), and Wexner Center for the Arts (2013), among others.

Tyson’s work is included in major collections such as Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Tate Modern, London.