He was previously a producer and writer in film and television. He co-founded the New HavenStuckist art group.
Social enterprise career
Nicholas Watson has worked in social enterprise development in the United States since 2009. He previously held the position of Vice President for Social Enterprise at Housing Works in New York City. He was also the founding Director of Social Enterprise at Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.[1]
Nicholas Watson has worked on films with Jesse Richards since 1997.[2] In 2001, Watson co-founded the New Haven, Connecticut chapter of the Stuckism art movement with Richards.[3]Stuckism was started in Britain by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson in 1999. Watson said, "We create art in order to create an emotional connection. There's such a rampant element of falseness in [conceptual] artwork. I'm very comfortable saying most of it is not for real."[4]
He was part of the group that founded and ran the Stuckism International Centre USA, an art gallery in New Haven. He said the organization attracted popular support, but had been unable to gain official backing.[4] His film with Richards, Blackout, was premiered at the event Stuck Films at the New Haven Stuckism International Center in 2002.[5][6] In 2003, he co-organized the Stuckism International Protest Show against the Iraq War, though the theme concentrated not so much on anti-war images as international artistic co-operation with works from the United States, Germany, Brazil and England.[4] One work showed a bust of President George W. Bush with a swastika behind it.[4]
On March 21, 2003, the Stuckists held a "clown trial of President Bush" on the steps of the U.S. District courthouse, Church Street, New Haven.[7] Watson issued a press release for the event, stating that the event was because the double talk of leaders had made clowns out of people, and that a dummy of the President in chains wearing an orange Camp X jumpsuit would be tried by a clown prosecutor, a clown defense and a clown judge.[7] Watson said, "Charges include planning crimes against humanity outside the sanction of international law. Our leader has reduced himself to the same level as those whose terrorist actions he condemns."[7]
Jesse Richards and Nicholas Watson. Shooting at the Moon. A still from an early Super-8 remodernist film.
He was associated with the Remodernist Film group. His film Shooting at the Moon, co-directed with Stuckist and Remodernist photographer and filmmaker Jesse Richards is one of the first works of Remodernist film. Shooting at the Moon premiered at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in November 2003. On March 8, 2008 the film made its London premiere at Horse Hospital during their Flixation Underground Cinema event.
Watson lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is the bassist for South Brooklyn Art Rock band Battle of the Camel and a Member of the Glue Stick Collective, a group of artists associated with Clean and Humble Recordings.
Artists' names in italics indicate artists no longer in the movement (as of November 2011)
Related Research Articles
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017 the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.
Remodernism is an artistic and philosophical movement aimed at reviving aspects of modernism, particularly in its early form, in a manner that both follows after and contrasts against postmodernism. Adherents of remodernism advocate it as a forward and radical, not reactionary, impetus.
Charles Thomson is an English artist, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art gallery, stood for parliament and reported Charles Saatchi to the OFT. He is frequently quoted in the media as an opponent of conceptual art. He was briefly married to artist Stella Vine.
Jeffrey Scott Holland,, is an artist, writer and musician living both in New York City and in Louisville, Kentucky. He is an active member of the Stuckist and Remodernist art movements, holding a traveling exhibit of Stuckist art in the United States in 2001, and co-curating the Deatrick Gallery, the first Remodernist art gallery worldwide.
Paul Arthur Harvey is a British musician and Stuckist artist, whose work was used to promote the Stuckists' 2004 show at the Liverpool Biennial. His paintings draw on pop art and the work of Alphonse Mucha, and often depict celebrities, including Madonna.
Jesse Beau Richards is a painter, filmmaker and photographer from New Haven, Connecticut and was affiliated with the international movement Stuckism. He has been described as "one of the most provocative names in American underground culture," and "the father of remodernist cinema."
Wolf Howard is an English artist, poet and filmmaker living in Rochester, Kent and was a founder member of the Stuckists art group. He is also a drummer who has played in garage and punk bands, currently as a member of The Musicians of the British Empire (MBE's) with Billy Childish.
The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005 and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.
Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism. Key figures are Jesse Richards and Peter Rinaldi.
John Bourne is a British artist and painter, living and working in Wales, and a member of the Stuckists art movement. He founded the Wrexham Stuckists group in 2001 and has been exhibited in the group's shows since then, including The Stuckists Punk Victorian. He has also taken part in Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize. The subject matter for his paintings, which are done in a simplified style, comes from his memories.
Shooting at the Moon is a short Super-8 punk/Remodernist film directed by Jesse Richards and Nicholas Watson, starring Matthew Quinn Martin as Buddy and Leila Laaraj as Lana, and features music by Billy Childish. It was shot in the summer of 1998 and its final cut was completed in 2003. The film premiered at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in November 2003. On March 8, 2008 the film made its London premiere at Horse Hospital during their FLIXATION Underground Cinema event.
Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high-profile both in Britain and abroad. Their primary agenda is the promotion of figurative painting and opposition to conceptual art.
The Stuckism art movement was started in London in 1999 to promote figurative painting and oppose conceptual art. This was mentioned in the United States media, but the first Stuckist presence in US was not until the following year, when former installation artist, Susan Constanse, founded a Pittsburgh chapter.
An art manifesto is a public declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of an artist or artistic movement. Manifestos are a standard feature of the various movements in the modernist avant-garde and are still written today. Art manifestos are sometimes in their rhetoric intended for shock value, to achieve a revolutionary effect. They often address wider issues, such as the political system. Typical themes are the need for revolution, freedom and the implied or overtly stated superiority of the writers over the status quo. The manifesto gives a means of expressing, publicising and recording ideas for the artist or art group—even if only one or two people write the words, it is mostly still attributed to the group name.
Regan Tamanui is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. In October 2000, he founded the Melbourne Stuckists, the fourth Stuckist of the original Stuckist groups and the first outside the United Kingdom. He has also painted prolifically as a street artist under the tag name HA-HA.
Stuckist photographers develop the values of the Stuckism art painting movement into film and photography. Some of them are in a group called the Stuckist Photographers.
Harris Smith is an American filmmaker, media critic and essayist from New York City. He is one of the founding members of the Remodernist film movement and was a participating member of the first comprehensive Remodernist exhibition in the United States, Addressing the Shadow and Making Friends with Wild Dogs: Remodernism.
Peter Klint is a German artist. He is a figurative painter and was a member of the Stuckist movement from 2003 to 2007.
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