Graham Nickson (born 1946-2025) was a British artist known for large-scale figurative paintings and drawings. He was born in Knowle Green, United Kingdom, and died New York City, USA. ^[1] He lived in New York City from 1976^[2] and he was the Dean of the New York Studio School from 1988-2024, and Dean Emeritus from 2024. He was a renowned artist and teacher developing the "Drawing Marathon," a two-week program of intensive study.^[2] Nickson worked in oils, acrylics, charcoal, and watercolor.

Nickson studied at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He was the recipient of the Prix de Rome in 1972 and the Harkness Fellowship at Yale University in 1976. In 1989 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.^[3] He received the Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University in 1980 and the Ingram Merrill Fellowship in 1993.^[4]

Nickson is known for his large acrylic and oil paintings of bathers on beaches and for his watercolor sunrises and sunsets. He is represented by Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York; with his most recent show in 2022.^[5] In 2019, he had an exhibition at the same gallery featuring frontal portraits in oil, "Eye Level".^[6]

Nickson has works in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,^[7] the National Gallery, Washington, DC,^[8] the Museum of Modern Art, New York,^[9] the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut,^[10] and the Morgan Library and Museum, New York,^[11] among others.