Works By Nic Joly

After this Joly then went on to study at The Winchester School of Art in Hampshire, and following the fulfilling of a number of privately commissioned works (manifest in both glass and bronze) he went on to enrol at John Makepeace’s College, Parnham House; where Joly undertook an apprenticeship in furniture design and manufacture.
During his training period, Joly got the opportunity to study at Chicago’s Art Institute in America as part of a popular exchange program offered between the two creative establishments at the time, which afforded the still very impressionable Joly alternative design insights. In 1996 Joly concluded his apprenticeship and associated studies at Parnham, and at his graduation (which incidentally was staged in show form at the Cork Street exhibition) received three key awards which singled his works out above his fellow students that year.
Since then, Joly has endeavoured to perfect the brand of artistic expression which we see today, through an often laborious process of development and natural evolution of his preferred style. His hallmark sculptures heavily feature Joly’s intricate figurines in the thick of the envisaged visual action, which are typically crafted from wire, paper and clay for the most part, and which bigger pictures have subsequently gone on to grab the headlines within his chosen genre and beyond. To date, Joly’s scaled down versions of everyday life have cropped up in various mainstream publications, such as the World of Interiors, House and Gardens, Wallpaper, Town and Country House and the Daily Mail amongst others. Exposure which has helped cement Joly’s growing reputation and seen his work meet with new audiences.
Fast forward to 2005, and the body of as-yet-unseen work which was unbeknownst to him (or an unsuspecting contemporary sculpture world at large) set to launch his career and place him firmly on the genre map was being originated, illustratively mapped out and potential realised by Joly. Only launched in the public eye as of 2012, Joly’s pivotal ‘Underfoot’ portfolio was dreamed up and physically initiated some seven years previously, yet as fans of his work, seasoned collectors and critics alike would quickly point out, well worth the prolonged wait.
Describing his now seminal ‘Underfoot’ collection and works which have been released since as ‘theatre to get lost in’, Joly insists that his hugely popular studies-in-small are simply framed versions of every day feelings, thoughts, imagined and observed events, and that through the pieces’ diminutive stature form a mood of omnipotence in the viewer’s perception, which in turn can make some believe that they are voyeurs, inexplicably drawn to the figures within the governed parameters of the sculpture’s presence. To put a slightly better way, Joly implies that the viewer shares a certain intimacy with his creations, comparing it to the overwhelming sense of familiarity you experience when peering into a museum display case; or someone else’s life when reading about or watching something on TV which invites the viewer right there into that person’s immediate world.
Courtesy of exemplary and far-reaching design rather than accident, Joly feels that the glass and frames which often encase his loyal subject matters – complete with their hidden and in some cases, not so hidden (and occasionally controversial, if not thought provoking) messages – contain and to an exaggerated degree, compress the world sealed within; subsequently suspending time itself, as well as all the creation’s accompanying humour, fear, happiness and dilemmas focused on many of our realities.
Citing the mesmerising and equally unique works of the revered likes of Hieronymous Bosch and Bruegel, have long inspired Joly and he has explained many times how he routinely gets lost in their intricate works, and the feelings that they evoke. Via his playful yet powerful narratives which are always encapsulated within his three-dimensional pieces, Joly attempts to connect real people with his imagined people and artistically highlight their struggles and hopes, adding (in the artist’s words); “In my own small way I strive to create my own worlds and sculptures to ask and bring to the forefront the dilemmas and questions that we all feel and face day to day, as well as highlight the madness around us”.