# Nick Aguayo URL: https://vielmetter.com/artists/nick-aguayo/ Has exhibited with Vielmetter Los Angeles Nick Aguayo paints compellingly layered abstract works that reveal an inventive approach to the materiality and physicality of paint. Emphasizing the performative aspects of dragging, pressing, brushing, and rolling paint onto canvas, Aguayo layers hand-rendered geometric shapes, building his compositions around the tensions between erasure and transparency, accumulation and excavation. Taking cues from collage, Aguayo densely coats his canvases with thick impasto surfaces, textural areas of paint, and materials including marble dust, to create a matte physicality to each composition. **Nick Aguayo** was born in 1984 in Palm Springs and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He received an MFA from the University of California Irvine in 2012 and a BFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 2007. Aguayo has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; La Loma Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; among others. His work has been featured in exhibitions at New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM; Shrine LA, Los Angeles; Over the Influence, Los Angeles; University of La Verne Art Gallery, La Verne, CA; Olong Gallery, Encinitas, CA; The Pit, Los Angeles; Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles; the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Post Gallery, Los Angeles; LAXART, Los Angeles; Autonomie, Los Angeles; The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA and elsewhere. His work is featured in the collections of the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs CA and The Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY. ## Exhibitions - [Nick AguayoBari Ziperstein inStep & Repeat](https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/nick-aguayo-bari-ziperstein-step-repeat.md): March 6 — April 18, 2025 · Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery · Artists: Nick Aguayo, Bari Ziperstein - [Nick Aguayo: Erasing A Flower](https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/nick-aguayo-erasing-a-flower.md): July 20 — September 7, 2024 · Gallery II · Artists: Nick Aguayo - [20 Years Anniversary Exhibition Part 2](https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/20-years-anniversary-exhibition-part-2.md): June 26 — August 7, 2021 · Gallery I & II · Artists: Nick Aguayo, Edgar Arceneaux, Sadie Benning, Ellen Berkenblit, Andrea Bowers, Kim Dingle, Sean Duffy, Nicole Eisenman, Louise Fishman, Charles Gaines, Karl Haendel, Samuel Levi Jones, My Barbarian, Rodney McMillian, Mary Reid Kelley & Patrick Kelley, Elizabeth Neel, Yunhee Min, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hugo McCloud, Dave McKenzie, Nicola Tyson - [Nick Aguayo: Wake the Town and Tell the People](https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/10.md): September 7 — October 19, 2019 · Artists: Nick Aguayo - [Nick Aguayo](https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/2014-05-nick-aguayo-nick-aguayo.md): May 31 — July 5, 2014 · Artists: Nick Aguayo ## Biography 1984 Born in Palm Springs, California Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA 2012 MFA, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 2007 BA, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA **Selected Exhibitions** 2026 "Nick Aguayo," Miles McEnery, New York, NY 2025 "Until Next Time!," Blue Door Gallery, Los Angeles, CA "A to L and Back Again: Nick Aguayo & Dan Levenson," Oolong Gallery, San Diego, CA 2024-2025 "All Bangers All The Time," Miles McEnery, New York, NY 2024 "Erasing A Flower," Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 2023 “Some Trees,” The Floating Gallery, Auto Brake Center, Los Angeles, CA "Nick Aguayo," Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY "The Trial," Good Naked Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2022 "Art at Tamarisk," Tamarisk Country Club, Rancho Mirage, CA Group Show, Blue Door Gallery, Guerneville, CA 2021 "20 Years," Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA "Via Cafe," Tif Sigfrids, Comer, GA 2020 "poem from home," curated by Rema Gholum, online "LA In Bloom: Seven Approaches to Abstraction," curated by Maryam Parsi, Werkartz, Los Angeles, CA "The Vista: Abstract Painting," Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, CA "Glyph," Unpaved Gallery, Yucca Valley, CA, Curated by Ryan Schneider 2019 "Wake the Town and Tell the People," Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA “Synthesis: Some Abstraction in Los Angeles,” Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA "Works on Paper," The Pit, Los Angeles, CA 2017 “Crystal Flowers,” Index, Los Angeles, CA “Wrong II,” PØST, Los Angeles, CA “Vantage,” Finishing Concepts, Los Angeles, CA “Objective / Non Objective,” Gallery Also, Los Angeles, CA ([Link](http://galleryalso.com/)) 2016 "Be With Me, a Small Exhibition of Large Paintings,” New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM 2015 "Black / White," curated by Brian Alfred, Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe, New York, NY 2014 Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, CA 2013 "Black Rabbit, White Hole," Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA "Paradox Maintenance Technicians," Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA 2012 UC Irvine Graduate Exhibition, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA "A Romantic Measure," Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA UC Irvine Thesis Exhibition, Irvine, CA "Traumatic Materiality," Autonomie, Los Angeles, CA 2011 "My head is falling out, so Im standing on my stomach," Artist Curated Projects, The Armory Center for The Arts, Pasadena, CA "Ne Me Quitte Pas," University Art Gallery, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA 2010 "Action (Un)Packed: Abstraction After Action," Commonspace, Los Angeles, CA "GLAMFA," California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA "Workspace Selects," House on Genesee, Los Angeles, CA 2007 Undergraduate Scholarship Exhibition, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA "No Art Today," INMO Gallery, Los Angeles, CA "Nick Aguayo Painting Exhibition," UCLA Undergraduate Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Hillel Juried Exhibition, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA Senior Show, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA **Bibliography** 2025 "April 24 issue: RSF local and regional events," San Diego Union Tribune, April 23 Kim, Sarah. "Art Talks Series Returns to Brand Library with LA Artists Sharing Creative Insights," Hoodline, February 14 2022 Aguyao, Nick. "Why This Art: ‘Montauk Highway'," Alta, June 29 ([Link](https://www.altaonline.com/culture/art/a40106744/why-this-art-montauk-highway-nick-aguayo/)) 2019 Akers Point-Dexter, Kathryn. "Nick Aguayo at Vielmetter Los Angeles," Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, October 2 ([Link](https://contemporaryartreview.la/nick-aguayo-at-vielmetter-la/)) Heitzman, Lorraine. "Vielmetter and Nicodim: 1700 South Santa Fe – Art Gains a Foothold," Art and Cake, September 23 ([Link](https://artandcakela.com/2019/09/23/vielmetter-and-nicodim-1700-south-santa-fe-art-gains-a-foothold/)) Drambot, Shana Nys. "Art Guide: Saturday, September 7th in Downtown," LA Weekly, September 4 ([Link](https://www.laweekly.com/art-guide-saturday-september-7th-in-downtown/)) 2017 Adams, Lisa. "Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2016: Through the Eyes of a Painter," January 29 2016 Jadrnak, Jackie. "Enchanting art," Journal North, October 21 Jansen, Char. "Artists' Desks," Artslant, January 27 "The City of Angels in A Starring Role," Art Auction, January 2014 King, Jennifer. "Nick Aguayo at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects," Artforum, October ([Link](https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/201408/nick-aguayo-48259)) **Exhibition Catalogues and Publications** 2023 Aguayo, Nick. "Quarantine Drawings," La Loma Projects, Los Angeles, CA **Awards, Grants and Fellowships** 2014 Emerging Artist Grant, Rema Hort Foundation, New York, NY 2009-2012 Fees Fellowship, University of California, Irvine 2007 Edward J. and Alice Mae Smith Award, UCLA Department of Art **Public Collections** MAC3, Los Angeles, CA The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA