Hayward Gallery, London
June 2025 - June 2026
Nicola Tyson describes her style as psycho-figuration, where depictions of bodies, wildlife and nature are informed as much by notions of identity, gender and sexuality as they are by the deeper recesses of the unconscious.
In Their Jumpers, two figures stand against a yellow brick wall. They appear to be engaging in a dance or striking a pose – or perhaps something more unsettling is taking place and their arms are raised in surrender.
We are never quite certain of the narratives unfolding in Nicola Tyson’s artworks. Her characters revel in ambiguity, challenging our expectations of what bodies are, what they can do, and how they can be represented.
In this artwork, an ultramarine blue colour wash is left visible in the characters’ facial features and in gaps left between the strokes of paint made in the artist’s signature dry-brush technique.
Born in London in 1960 and residing in New York since 1989, Tyson is primarily known as a painter, while also working with photography, film, performance and the written word.