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If you ever need a break from the gray reality of going to work, paying bills and facing the challenges of everyday life, you may want to consider stepping into the absurdly surreal world of Nicolas Party. The artist’s name already sounds promising, and if you’re looking for a touch of madness, you’ve certainly come to the right place!

Colorful heads casting piercing looks, psychedelic landscapes that ooze child’s creativity and yet generate feelings too complex to consider them childlike, or still lifes with a feisty twist to them – teapots with phallic spouts or fleshy pears reminiscent of soft human body – that’s just some of the things you can expect to find in Nicolas Party’s art!

In fact, there’s not a thing in there that wouldn’t be at least slightly disturbing or out of place. This is perfectly reflected in his portraits, typically in expressive or even neon colors. Even when they smile, the male and female figures look as if something were hurting or pinching them, like the hero of the cult meme “Hide the Pain Harold”. Even the artist’s animals aren’t exactly animals. His cats’ faces, for example, both paintings and sculptures, are more human than cat-like, which makes you want to look twice at the work to make a better sense of it.

A special place in Party’s art is occupied by installations where a surreal micro-world seen through his eyes truly comes together. The paintings and sculptures are embedded in the context of colorful murals and let us step inside the artist’s mind to see what hides in there! A similar effect was achieved by Salvador Dali in his installation inspired by the portrait of the actress Mae West.

Although it might seem that Party molds in his art a reality completely detached from the notion of tradition, he draws heavily from historical motifs, processing them in his own unique way. His works depicting masks with gaping mouths are an homage to ancient theater masks, while the sculptures of multi-colored heads are an interesting take on the ancient Colossus of Constantine that has been preserved to this day in pieces, of which the massive great head is the most famous. The eyes in both artworks are equally mesmerizing.

Nicolas Party has developed his own unique style which cannot be mistaken for any other. Vibrant colors, disturbing landscapes and human faces with strange grimaces push us out of our comfort zone into the middle of a bizarre new reality. It is a world in which, if you stop to think about it, cats with human faces aren’t really that surprising, given that cats always look at humans in a profound, judgmental way!