Oxmarket are excited to welcome Nick Carrick in the John Rank Gallery in September. Nick uses the representational world as a starting point  in his work. Old photographs, sketches and found objects all  play a role as metaphors for emotive memories and feelings he has with places and situations. Recurring motifs and themes  such as mountains, paths and trees take on new meaning relating to situations. The  path can convey an escapism or path to enlightenment. The mountain about human struggle and the terrains of a life. This can be ambiguous as Nick wants the viewer to find their own meaning within his work.

The surface of each painting is rendered and sanded down to reflect the passing memory of each place and sensation. The paintings take on a life of there own through this process which hold hidden meaning. Painting for Nick is a way to make sense of the world and document the everyday happenings that are so overlooked.

Travelling has been a constant source of inspiration for Nick, especially Spain. The history of art, culture, food and people along with the decaying grandeur of the north of the country and arid unforgiving terrain and climate of the south. There's a resilience to the people throughout history that I admire. The Sussex landscape and Spain are merging and creating new vistas that more reflect an emotive response. Intoxication of images a sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a safe place for people, such as a political sanctuary; and non-human sanctuary, such as an animal or plant sanctuary.