Wk 13 – Artists Conversation – Nick Bamford

Artist: Nick Bamford

Exhibition: No name

Gallery: Gatov East

Media: Plastic, Cement, Foams, Plaster, Wood

Website: Artist has no website

IG: @nickbamf4d

Nick Bamford is an under graduate student here at California State University Long Beach on his final year. He will be getting his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics. Nick grew up in Huntington Beach and has always enjoyed art. On the contrary, he has a younger sister who does not enjoy art and is an accountant. During his free time, you can find Nick either playing his guitar or working on art. He says that art takes up most of his free time, but he enjoys doing it a lot.

Nick’s art work is very chaotic yet inspiring. It is very interesting because a lot of the pieces in his sculptures glow because of the black lights. Because of the chaos and how everything was oriented, I feel as if the artwork was inspired by the movie Mad Max. The sculptures give off an apocalyptic flare, as if they were the result from an artist giving their interpretation of the chaotic mess that could follow an apocalypse or a war.

Nick’s inspiration was to do something that other people were not doing. I can say that he definitely achieved this because his exhibition was something I have yet to see before here at Long Beach. He said that he tried to use personal objects from his own life within his sculptures. He also states that he wanted to leave the meaning of the sculptures up for interpretation for the viewer.

Nick’s art work means many things to me. To start off, it reminds me of the movie Mad Max and the chaos of the rebel like society that uses scrap to make anything work. Next, the bright neon colors in his sculptures resonate with a feeling that makes me happy and excited. Lastly, his sculptures feature some skulls which makes me take a step back and really think what they mean. It made me think that the sculptures portray all of the sad and happy times we have, whether it be fun times like watching a movie, or sad times like going shopping or having to cope with the death of someone.