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
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SQRM, I Cant Find My Knife
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Hittinpunchinstabbinshooting , Driller Killer 1994
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Want Us Dead, Limp Wrist 2016
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My Rules, Void 1982
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Smash Divisions, disrupt 1994
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Crudo Soy, Los Crudos 2016
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Privilegio Blanco, Abism 2023
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Cockroaches, Nailbomb 1994
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All White, Die Kreuzen 1984
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I Got Your Number, Cock Sparrer 1982
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Charity Hilarity, Flux of Pink Indians 1982
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Warsystem, The Shitlickers 1982
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G.L.O.S.S. (We're from the Future), G.L.O.S.S. 2016
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Q: And Children A: And Children, Discharge 2003
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Youth of Today, Youth Of Today 1986
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Failed, Cult Ritual 2009
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World Peace, Cro-Mags 2000
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Black-Site, Tower 7 2021
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Abuse Excuse, Mind Eraser 2006
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Endless Blockade for Pussyfooter, Gis(m) 1997
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Fuck the Border, Propagandhi 2001
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Dead Town, The Vicious 2008
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Wolfpack, D.Y.S. 1983
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Glue, Enemy
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The Roll Call, Firewalker 2019
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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.