Artist to Watch: Nicholas Grafia

“Titled ‘Legit/Threat,’ the painting visualizes a tense airport situation in which having the wrong appearance and not having valid travel documents is simply not an option. Passports suddenly turn into weapons, international mobility is threatened and subsequently life goals and aspirations as well,” writes Nicholas about his work, first exhibited in Düsseldorf in 2018. In the last few years, Grafia’s practice has increasingly shifted towards one that seeks to combine mainly painting, time-based media installation and performances, which are frequently done in collaboration with Polish artist Mikołaj Sobczak, in order to discuss the creation of psychological, cultural and political memory, as well as processes of social othering, ex- and inclusion.