Nicky Carvell
Nicky Carvell (born 1983) is a British artist based in London who works under the name "Naff Grafix," a style of brightly coloured, digitally drawn compositions built from suburban signage, sportswear branding and pop imagery.
Early life and education
[edit]Carvell was born in Hertfordshire in 1983 and grew up in Hemel Hempstead. She studied at Chelsea College of Arts (Foundation Studies in Art and Design, 2002–2003) and Goldsmiths, University of London (BA Fine Art, 2003–2006), then completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools in London (2006–2009).[1]
She lives and works in London.
Career
[edit]Carvell works across painting, installation and product design, drawing on branding, sportswear and club culture. She calls her aesthetic "Naff Grafix": compositions drawn digitally on a tablet and printed onto aluminium, combining consumer imagery with painterly mark-making.[2] Her work has been shown in the United Kingdom and internationally, including in the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In 2012 Carvell completed a residency at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, New York, after winning the Grand Prize in the 3rd Ward Open Call.[3]
In 2013 she launched the clothing line NIKWEAR, applying her Naff Grafix imagery to garments.[4] Her crossover between art and fashion was the subject of "Lady of Leisure Wear" by Namalee Bolle, with photography by Rosaline Shahnavaz, published by i-D on 25 March 2017.[5]
Her installation Esprit Heat, staged at the French Protestant Church, Soho Square, was part of the 2016 Soho Create Festival and was featured in the Soho Create supplement of The Guardian.[6] That year Carvell was named the Soho Create Festival Winner for Installation.
Her earlier work also drew national press coverage. Peace from East 17 (2014), an exhibition at the Self Run Pop Art Centre in Walthamstow featuring former East 17 member Brian Harvey, was covered by NME and the Evening Standard.[7][8]
Carvell's work has also featured in Super Super Magazine (Issue 12, June 2008), It's Nice That (December 2011), The Upcoming (October 2011) and the design anthology Pretty Ugly – Visual Rebellion in Design (Gestalten, May 2012).[9][10][11][12]
Her public work was included in Sculpture at Canary Wharf – A Decade of Exhibitions (Canary Wharf Group, 2011).[13] In 2014 she appeared on the BBC Culture Show special marking the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and was profiled over two pages in the Radio Times (7–13 June 2014, pp. 28–29).[14][15]
She has continued to exhibit in the UK and internationally, including with GIANT, Bournemouth (2021), Tatjana Pieters Gallery, Ghent (2019), and OHSH Projects, London (2023). Her work is held in private collections worldwide.
Style and themes
[edit]Carvell's visual language draws on commercial design, neon signage and 1980s and 1990s pop culture, which she has described as "the grit of British suburbia" reworked into what she calls "abstract digital paintings."[2] Through NIKWEAR and installations such as Esprit Heat, her work has moved between gallery and street contexts, placing it alongside the neon-toned, streetwear-adjacent visual culture that ran through London's club and fashion scenes in the 2000s and 2010s.[16]
Awards and residencies
[edit]- 2019 — J.M.W. Turner's House, Sandycombe Lodge, six-month residency, London
- 2016 — Soho Create Festival Winner, London
- 2012 — 3rd Ward Open Call Grand Prize Winner, Brooklyn, New York
- 2009–2010 — The Land Securities Studio Prize, Oxford Street, London
- 2009 — Alumni Award, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Selected exhibitions
[edit]- 2024 Visage, Blackbird Rook Online (11 January – 14 February)
- 2023
- MERCHBAU, OHSH Projects, Peckham, London
- Solo/Social Scribbles, Photo Book Café, London
- 2021
- Big Medicine, GIANT Gallery, Bournemouth
- Summer Exhibition, Artwave West, Dorset
- 2019
- Installation at Turner's House, London
- Fully Awake, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland
- There's Something About Painting, Tatjana Pieters Gallery, Ghent, Belgium
- 2017
- Wearable Expressions, Palos Verdes Art Center, Los Angeles
- Brains and Lip Takeover, Hix Art, London
- 2016
- Mannequin, Griffin Gallery, London
- Run Forrest Run, The Kennington Residency
- Esprit Heat, Soho Create, London
- 2015 Bonfire of the Vanities, Display Gallery, Holborn, London
- 2014
- SECURE DECOR and Flatpacked/Wrapped/Stacked, Punk and Sheep, Canary Wharf
- RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
- 2012
- RAINBOW REV, 3rd Ward, Brooklyn
- Red, White and Blue – Pop/Punk/Politics/Place, Chelsea Space, London
- 2010
- Modern Love, Simon Oldfield Gallery, London
- This is England, Aubin & Wills Gallery, London
- 2009 Plastic Culture: Legacies of Pop, The Harris Museum, Preston and The Exchange, Penzance
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "Nicky Carvell". Royal Academy of Arts. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
- 1 2 "Text". nickycarvell.com. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
- ↑ "3rd Ward Open Call Grand Prize Winner: Nicky Carvell". 3rd Ward. 2012.
- ↑ "NIKWEAR feature". Notion. No. 66. December 2013.
- ↑ Bolle, Namalee (25 March 2017). "Lady of Leisure Wear". i-D (The Fifth Sense). VICE Media. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
- ↑ "SOHO CREATE supplement". The Guardian. 20 May 2016.
- ↑ "East 17's Brian Harvey featuring in Royal Academy Exhibition". NME. June 2009.
- ↑ "East 17 bad boy takes centre stage at RA show". The Evening Standard. 17 June 2009.
- ↑ "Feature". Super Super Magazine. No. 12. June 2008.
- ↑ "Feature on Nicky Carvell". It's Nice That. December 2011.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|url=(help) - ↑ "Review of Nicky Carvell exhibition". The Upcoming. October 2011.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|url=(help) - ↑ Pretty Ugly – Visual Rebellion in Design. Gestalten. May 2012.
- ↑ Sculpture at Canary Wharf – A Decade of Exhibitions. Canary Wharf Group. December 2011.
- ↑ "The Culture Show: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2014". 2014. BBC Two.
{{cite episode}}: Missing or empty|series=(help) - ↑ "Feature on Nicky Carvell". Radio Times. 7–13 June 2014. pp. 28–29.
- ↑ "The Art of Protest at Bournemouth's GIANT". Arts & Collections. Retrieved 5 October 2025.