Nicholas Sullivan Untitled, 2024 Iron and steel 25 x 27 1/2 x 6 inches 63,5 x 69,8 x 15,2 cm

Nicholas Sullivan Untitled, 2024 Steel and urethane paint Each 21 x 12 x 4 inches 53,3 x 30,5 x 10,2 cm

Nicholas Sullivan Untitled, 2024 Steel, twine, brass 20 1/4 x 24 x 6 inches 51,4 x 61 x 15,2 cm

Nicholas Sullivan Untitled, 2024 Steel, charcoal, pigment, and paper 128 x 15 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches 325,1 x 39,4 x 16,5 cm

Nicholas Sullivan Untitled, 2024 Steel and body filler 17 x 81 x 10 1/2 inches 43,2 x 205,7 x 26,7 cm

Nicholas Sullivan
December 3, 2024

Complete playlist below; tracks in yellow were cut for time.

Sculptor Nicholas Sullivan joins me to share a surprisingly sensitive punk/hardcore set in honor of his great exhibition Chrysler at Clearing Gallery in New York City, on view through January 11, 2025.

Sullivan studied at both UMass Amherst and MassArt in Boston, and after graduating with an MFA, he taught at MassArt for 6 years. In his introductory sculpture class, “Form Study”, he encouraged his students to really get to know a material by slowly and continually changing and working it until the object finds itself, or manifests its own specificity. He was delighted and amazed by the strange and beautiful objects his beginner students would come up with, and this process of sequentially manipulating material into form is how he works now. Sullivan describes how a series of material experimentations led him to the form of the wood stove, a recurring motif in his artwork. He also discusses how important it is to have art mentors—people whose work forges an inspirational path of exploration of form, meaning, and process.

His current exhibition features several stove-based sculptures, and Sullivan takes us through a sequence of different formal and conceptual moves in the show. Some of the works incorporate collage, others utilize a high-gloss auto body finish; some pieces are black boxes to the viewer, some have peep holes, and others have perforated skins allowing us to peer inside. Nicholas unpacks how these different forms and ways of making relate to history and meaning in a really beautiful way.

He also helps Nate understand the history and differences between Punk and Hardcore, and we talk about the different scenes, movements, and ideologies that find their homes in this genre of music. We go from classic English punk to Swedish d-beat, queercore, Japanese hardcore, and powerviolence. We discuss what it means to rock out in the studio vs. the transcendence of being in a collective experience at a live punk show. We also identify particular tracks that garner perhaps Sullivan’s highest compliment: “It makes you want to put your head through a wall!”

In My Eyes , Minor Threat 1981
SQRM, I Cant Find My Knife
Hittinpunchinstabbinshooting , Driller Killer 1994
Want Us Dead, Limp Wrist 2016
My Rules, Void 1982
Smash Divisions, disrupt 1994
Crudo Soy, Los Crudos 2016
Privilegio Blanco, Abism 2023
Cockroaches, Nailbomb 1994
All White, Die Kreuzen 1984
I Got Your Number, Cock Sparrer 1982
Charity Hilarity, Flux of Pink Indians 1982
Warsystem, The Shitlickers 1982
G.L.O.S.S. (We're from the Future), G.L.O.S.S. 2016
Q: And Children A: And Children, Discharge 2003
Youth of Today, Youth Of Today 1986
Failed, Cult Ritual 2009
World Peace, Cro-Mags 2000
Black-Site, Tower 7 2021
Abuse Excuse, Mind Eraser 2006
Endless Blockade for Pussyfooter, Gis(m) 1997
Fuck the Border, Propagandhi 2001
Dead Town, The Vicious 2008
Wolfpack, D.Y.S. 1983
Glue, Enemy
The Roll Call, Firewalker 2019
Drop Dead, Siege 2015
Hardcore for Hardcore, The Rival Mob 2010
Sanctuary, Amebix 2011
Animal Liberation, Mob 47 1984
Los Angeles, Hoax 2013
Force Of Habit, Crossed Out 1991
Upsidedown Cross, Upsidedown Cross 1991
No Moderation, Government Warning 2006
Blank Stare, White Hell
Spudboy, Spazz 2016
Paid In Blood, XweaponX 2023
Can't Tell No One, Negative Approach 1981
Grim Reaper, Siege 2015
Paranoid, Masshysteri 2013
Horrible Person, Rat Henry 2024

Nicholas Sullivan (b. 1987) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Sullivan earned his M.F.A. in Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA, and his B.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA. Recent exhibitions include; Chrysler, C L E A R I N G, New York, NY; Spitting Image, Underdonk, Brooklyn; NY Everblue, International Waters, New York, NY; Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Galeria Mascota, Mexico City, MX; Make Hay in the Sun, HG, Chicago, IL; NY; Domino, Shoot The Lobster, New York, NY; Comfort Animal, A-L Gallery, Seoul SK; Neu, No Place Gallery, Columbus OH, ; The World Without Us, Brennan & Griffin, New York NY; Gist & Gesture, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL; Foster Prize Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA.

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