Nicholai Shaver

Nicholai Shaver was born and raised in Irvington, a historical district located in the city of Indianapolis.  He began as a simple illustrator with some apprentice skills in metallurgy, but expanded his skills more into painting upon his later years in art school.

A graduate of Herron School of Art and Design, Nicholai received a Bachelor in Fine Art and a minor in Art History.  He admired many historical art movements from Ancient Egyptian to the present contemporaries, but was especially influenced by Post Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and most notably, Art Deco.

Nicholai’s approach to his art is generated through the central focus on rooms, creating a series of networking lines to cage an introverted space on rough wooden panels.  Each interior perspective is named after a constellation in the night sky, both currently used and even obsolete names to give the paintings a more mysterious yet formal title.   These paintings reference rooms both actual and fictional, from memory to fantasy, in search of innovative methods to advance his vastly growing collection of what he calls “Interiospective” paintings.

Nicholai is also the inventor of the Cabinet Columns, a series of assemblage-like wall structures made from wood and other small assorted objects.  The columns stack up like obelisks with a painted background to give a sense of space.  The cabinets can be alone with just the background or accompanied by motifs of wooden shapes floating symmetrically beside them.  Since they are referred to as columns, each cabinet is catalogued with names after different stones to signify an old column carved out of stone.  Though often called Cabinet Columns, they are also sometimes referred to as “Hutch Towers” or “Ceiling Scrapers”.

Check out Nicholai’s official website at www.nicholai-shaver.com

Contact Nicholai: ns@nicholai-shaver.com