Sculptor and painter Mike Nicholls was a founding member of ROAR Studios, one of Melbourne’s earliest artist-run-initiatives. Rebels of their time, ROAR artists – who also included David Larwill, Mark Schaller and Pasquale Giardino – produced energetic, figurative expressionist work, forging novel opportunities for artists outside of the establishment.

In his work ‘Back Seat Driver’ (1987), an original and large oil painting, Nicholls expresses the ROAR attitude. Passengers in a car are abstracted to cubist figures rolling through the landscape. There are references to cave art, modernism and free-form jazz, each element of colour and form a major key in Nicholls’s cacophonous commute.

As a young artist, Nicholls was influenced by a variety of experiences. He spent time in remote cattle stations in Central Queensland, and travelled throughout Australia, Spain and the Antarctic. He has been the subject of retrospectives at Maroondah Art Gallery, South Gippsland Art Gallery and McClelland Art Gallery, and is represented in public collections including at the National Gallery of Australia.

For collectors of ROAR and neo-expressionist art, ‘Back Seat Driver’ is an energising find – a thrilling work from a thrilling period of Australian art.

Mike NICHOLLS (1960 - )
'Back Seat Driver' 1987
oil on canvas
Image Size: 152 x 121 cm
Dimensions: 152 x 121 x 2 cm
Signed: Signed “NM 78” lower left
Comes with Letter of Provenance
Condition:Very Good: Describes a work of art's image as Excellent, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear to paper or frame. There are no tears to paper margin or disruption to the paint surface.
(c) The Artist or Assignee