An enigmatic figure among the Young British Artists (YBAs), Nick Fudge stands apart as an artist who has chosen to work outside conventional timelines and market demands. Once mentored by Michael Craig-Martin and Jon Thompson at Goldsmiths, Fudge's artistic path diverged sharply from that of his contemporaries. In 1988, on the eve of his graduation show, he notoriously destroyed his student work, rejecting the burgeoning YBA scene and its rapid rise to cultural and commercial prominence. Instead, he moved to the United States and embarked on what might be called a postmodern vision quest, one marked by solitude, self-imposed secrecy, and a deep engagement with the intersections of art history, technology, and conceptual critique.

His art practice reflects an obsessive dialogue between the analog and the digital, rooted in his classical training and deep knowledge of the Renaissance Old Masters, but profoundly transformed by his encounters with the vast landscapes of the American West and the early Macintosh computers of the 1990s. It was here, through Adobe's then-revolutionary software for the Macintosh Classic II (codenamed "Montana"), that he began a decades-long exploration of the digital as both a medium and a subject. His early digital experiments transformed software interfaces into visual architectures, integrating their grids, vectors, and algorithms into what he describes as allegorical framing devices. By reproducing and reconfiguring canonical modernist works through raster and vector programs, Fudge exposed their fractures, glitches, and erasures, creating digital objects that destabilize traditional notions of authorship, originality, and permanence.  

Over three decades, Fudge has created thousands of digital works, most of which remain unpublished and unexhibited. Only a select few have been translated into physical form - paintings, prints, or time-based installations—emphasizing their rarity and resisting the ephemerality of the digital. His deliberate strategy of delay, inspired by Duchamp’s notion of deferred meaning, critiques the relentless acceleration of digital technologies and the inevitable obsolescence they impose. The works exist in a state of asynchronous tension - operating simultaneously within historical, present, and speculative futures - offering a counterpoint to the hyper-speed and disposability of the neoliberal digital age.  

Fudge's re-emergence in 2015 marked a pivotal moment in his career, beginning with the exhibition Obscured by Clouds in an abandoned, graffiti-covered newspaper building in Hastings. This choice of venue symbolized his resistance to the sterility of the white cube gallery and his commitment to recontextualizing his work outside of traditional art world structures. Subsequent projects, such as his participation in Semi-Manual Era at the Gravity Art Museum in Beijing and the strategic release of digital works in China, underscore his meticulous control over how and when his work is revealed. His conceptual approach is perhaps best exemplified by his upcoming solo exhibition at C5CNM Gallery in Beijing’s 798 District, where he plans to unveil a curated selection of digital works that have been in development since the mid-1990s.

At the heart of his practice is an ongoing negotiation between traditional media and digital processes, creating what he describes as augmented spaces that blur the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and digital art. His works are as much about the tools and systems that produce them as they are about their aesthetic and conceptual outcomes. Drawing on traditions of Institutional Critique and influenced by figures such as Hans Haacke, Fudge interrogates the economic and cultural frameworks that shape the art world while carving out a space for his work to exist beyond them.

His art is a meditation on time, technology, and transformation. By strategically withholding and carefully revealing his practice, he offers a rare, almost alchemical vision of the potential to endure and evolve, challenging collectors and audiences alike to rethink their relationship to both the digital and the eternal.

Nick Fudge

Born in London, England, 1961                                                                                                           

Lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal

Education

1992–1994 – MFA Painting, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA.
1985–1988 – BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK.

Solo & Site-Specific Exhibitions (Selected)

2026 (forthcoming)
Solo exhibition (title TBC), CLC Gallery Venture, 798 Art District, Beijing, China. Curated by 周翊 Zhou Yi.

2024
Site-specific solar-powered installation (title withheld), Lop Nor (Qinghai), Gobi Desert, China. Organized and curated by 周翊 Zhou Yi, in collaboration with CLC Gallery Venture.

2018
Undo Redo Return, HSBC HQ, Canada Water, London, UK. Solo exhibition curated by Daniel Lancaster and Jeremy Akerman (March–June).

2016
Reality Drive: Escape Velocity, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK. Solo exhibition (June–July).

2016
Reality Drive, Observer Arts, Observer Building, Hastings, UK. Solo exhibition (April–May).

Group Exhibitions & Curated Presentations (Selected)

2025
The Sedition Soirée, art’otel London Hoxton, London, UK. Curated digital showcase with Mat Collishaw, Nick Fudge, and Terry Flaxton, presented by Sedition in partnership with Muse Frame (Oct 8–16; private view Oct 15).

2024
Semi-Manual Era, Gravity Art Museum, Beijing, China. Group exhibition; Unplugged In section curated by 周翊 Zhou Yi, with Chen Ke, Nick Fudge, Gao Ludi, Lao Jiahui, Shang Liang, Song Yonghong, Unmask (Liu Zhan), Wang Yiwei, Yancong, Zhang Yudong (June 29–Sept 23).

2024
Apollo’s Decathlon, Château de Montsoreau – Museum of Contemporary Art, Montsoreau, France. Group exhibition curated by Lara Pan in collaboration with the museum; Fudge represents Great Britain in the painting category with *PICASSO CO.*

2024
Future Paint, Kelly-McKenna Gallery, Spring Lake, New Jersey, USA. Three-person exhibition with Charley Peters and Komply; organized and curated by Nick Fudge (April–June).

2021
Digital Divide II – Painting in the Age of New Media, HilbertRaum, Berlin, Germany. Group exhibition with Andreas Lau, Enda O’Donoghue, Römer + Römer, Sandra Schlipkoeter (Oct–Nov).

2019–2020
Digital Divide – Painting in the Age of New Media, Kunstverein Speyer, Germany. Three-person show with Andreas Lau and Römer + Römer (Dec–Jan).

2015–2016
Borderlands, Albus3 Arts, Northampton, UK. Group exhibition (Dec 11–Jan 31).

2015
Obscured by Clouds, Observer Arts, The Observer Building, Hastings, UK. Two-person exhibition with Phil King, curated by Mathew Burrows (Sept 5–Oct 31).

1994
Material for No Thing, MFA Graduation Exhibition, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. Two-person exhibition with Steve Voll (May 4–June 18).

1992
Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, Karsten Schubert Ltd., London, UK. Group show with Mat Collishaw, Keith Coventry, Tobias Eyferth, Nicholas Fudge, Sarah Lucas; curated by Michael Landy (Jan–Feb).

Digital Collections & Art Fairs (Selected)

2025
Cubist Guitars in Digital Color Space, Sedition — featured solo digital presentation at Sedition / Muse Frame booth, Digitalism Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London (British Art Fair / Frieze week), collection launch Sept 25; collection sold out.

2024
Picasso Pizazz, Sedition. Second digital collection, launched May 8; accompanied by Vladislav Alimpiev’s interview Reframing Modernism in the Digital Age.

2023
Destruction of Appearance, Sedition. First digital collection, launched Nov 15.

Talks, Panels & Public Programmes (Selected)

2025
Panelist, Sedition Soirée: An Evening Between Eras, Sedition, art’otel London Hoxton, London, UK. Panel with Mat Collishaw and Terry Flaxton, moderated by Dyl Blaquiere, reflecting on the YBA era and digital futures (Frieze week).

2024
Artist talk, Future Paint, Kelly-McKenna Gallery, Spring Lake, New Jersey, USA (April 11).

2018
Artist talk, Undo Redo Return, HSBC HQ, Canada Water, London, UK. Hosted by Jeremy Akerman (May 3).

2016
Artist talk, Turps Banana Studio Programme, London, UK. Studio presentation and discussion hosted by Marcus Harvey and Phillip Allen (Jan 29).

Broadcast / Interviews (Selected)

Guest, Life Stories with Nick Fudge, Talk Radio Europe (Apr 2019).

Conversation with Römer + Römer, Turps Banana magazine Issue 21, (2019).

Conversation with Susie Hamilton, Turps Banana magazine Issue 18, (2017).

Bibliography (Selected)

Vladislav Alimpiev, “Reframing Modernism in the Digital Age with ‘Picasso Pizazz’,” Sedition (3 May 2024).

Lara Pan, “Future Paint: Nick Fudge’s Emergence from the Underground,” White Hot Magazine (1 May 2024).

Ellen Korelus-Bruder, “Speyer: Exhibition ‘Digital Divide – Painting in the Age of New Media’ at the Kunstverein,” Die Rheinpfalz (29 Nov 2019).

An Paenhuysen, “From Berlin to Hastings: an Art Journey Through Delayed Reaction,” Sleek (Autumn 2015).

Jack Malvern, “Rebel artist who threw it all away returns after 25 years,” The Times (Apr 2016).

Laura Silverman, “My Space: Nicholas Fudge, Artist,” The Sunday Telegraph (Apr 2016).

An Paenhuysen, “Das Verschwinden des Materials. Or Nick Fudge, Sleek Magazine, and a Little Extra,” Sleek (2015).

Professional Activities (Selected)

Member of the editorial board, Turps Banana magazine (since 2019).