For the reason that starting of time, man has been inquisitive about dissections. From these fascinated with uncovering how our our bodies work, to highschool biology classes forcing the squeamish to know, the thought of unpacking the sophisticated blood and bone machines we occupy has lengthy tickled each the science and artwork worlds. Whereas numerous artists have utilized the artwork of dissection, from KAWS to Jason Freeny, few have reached the precise and correct renditions Nychos weaves with paint.
Born within the Austrian countryside two hours south of the nation’s capital metropolis Vienna, Nychos is the persona of the artist identified solely as Nicholas, or Nick Nychos, which in his personal phrases seems like a personality in a novel’s identify. Having been born right into a household of woodsmen and builders, Nychos was uncovered to the extra brutal sides of life from a really younger age. Working along with his father whereas he would strip and clear the brand new trophy animals he’d hunted, it was like Nychos subconsciously knew the place life would take him. As a substitute of getting grossed out by the flayed our bodies, he started to know the mechanics behind these creatures.
“I used to be watching my dad dissecting animals from early on, and I used to be like, ‘Wow, that is loopy,’” he says, including that some a part of him already knew the kind of artwork he would later create. “I used to be observing, and he was explaining a number of issues, you already know, like what all the pieces is… I’m undecided if I may actually say it was a traumatic expertise. It was extra like, ‘Oh, that is how animals work.’ And I already knew that we work the identical method. ‘That is the way it appears inside. Oh, fascinating.’ After which later at school, you already know, while you had these plastic figures for the lungs, and you’ll take all the pieces out and stuff, and have a look at all the pieces. After which you possibly can open it additionally. I used to be like, ‘I do know all these things already.’”
Portray: Nychos, “The Healer”, acrylics on canvas, 60X60 inch, 2021
Whereas portray wasn’t precisely a legitimate profession alternative in response to his mother and father’ technology, his mom labored as an architect, so his creativity was fostered from a younger age. Though he wasn’t positive the trail life would take him, Nychos was acutely conscious he can be an artist at some point. He was all the time drawing and watching cartoons—which within the ’90s in Austria wasn’t the simplest to search out contemplating this was earlier than the web.
“It’s only a bizarre spot for an artist typically… I used to be like, ‘Oh, in some unspecified time in the future, I’m gonna work for Disney at some point or one thing like that,’ as a result of I began to study to attract cartoons like Disney stuff or the Saturday cartoons,” he says. “Finally, I began to learn Spawn, and I really feel like that was one of many ones the place I used to be first like, ‘Yeah, it is a sick model, sick story.’ And that was already once I was 17. Across the similar time, I began to get into graffiti as properly.”
Whereas he went to artwork college, his ardour for animation didn’t appear doable for a European artist. However that’s the place he realized he may have an actual profession as an artist, which was what he needed to do, not what was anticipated of him. He explains that to start with, his drawing model was extra cartoony.
“With that, you begin lowering mechanically; not all the pieces suits,” he says. “I painted a number of skeletons and different cartoon characters, and in some unspecified time in the future, I used to be like, ‘What’s the following degree?’ And it organically developed into the issues the place I began to peel off pores and skin, you already know, to play with zombies simply shedding their pores and skin, and stuff the place like, it’s additionally so enjoyable to color, particularly on partitions. If you begin peeling the pores and skin off, abruptly you’re breaking bones, and issues are flying round.”
Nychos works onerous to depict accuracy in his artwork.
“If you draw one thing, you’ll want to perceive the mechanism,” he explains. “It’s like if you happen to have a look at the Terminator skeleton, you already know, it’s a metallic skeleton, and it must fucking work, one way or the other the hydraulics must work, different cables must make sense. So similar with anatomy; it’s the identical factor. Like, I must know the way the mechanism works, and what each organ does and what it’s good for, and the place it’s positioned. And why is it positioned there and all the pieces.”
Finally, his anatomy research for his artwork opened his thoughts.
“On the time once I began, I didn’t even notice how a lot this research was truly going to have an effect on all the pieces, all the pieces artistic, all the pieces I do, how a lot I’ll truly find out about life or this excellent machine the universe has created for our soul to sit down in,” he says.
Discovering the Artist
In 2004, Nychos moved to Vienna and started to double down on his graffiti profession. It was there that he began his undertaking the Rabbit Eye Movement. His enterprise and crew stay there to at the present time, regardless of now largely working all over the world. He remembers that in this time, he acquired his first test for portray and the way proud his father was of him, regardless of not totally understanding what he was doing. However he hadn’t made it but. In reality, he hadn’t even made it to a spot the place he may afford paint.
“The hazard of operating out [of paint] was current all the time, so I don’t know what number of unfinished or fucked up items I painted it earlier than it began to make sense,” he says. “I used to be, I don’t know, 17 again then, and I made a decision to fully skip alcohol as a result of it was in some unspecified time in the future simply fucking retarded to me… I bear in mind I checked out this bottle of vodka. And I’m like, ‘I may have purchased like 5 spray cans, and I’m not even drunk, and I killed this entire bottle. That is silly.’”
With the main focus all the time squarely on his artwork, he says he “clearly additionally began to smoke weed.” Then he realized he may purchase extra paint cans if he offered weed. Luggage for Cans, if you’ll. From there, he moved to Australia—nearly the exact opposite facet of the world—to actually dive right into a extra hardcore graffiti scene.
“It was good occasions, loopy occasions, actually excessive occasions,” he jokes.
An out-of-body expertise directed him in direction of a concentrate on portray graffiti.
“I really feel like no matter path you’re going [on], like, a few of it you’re alleged to go, and the universe is simply ready till you get there,” he says. “Actually the day after [I stopped drinking], I used to be like, ‘Fuck this, I need to paint graffiti. I need to do that, and I need to construct that.’ I didn’t know what that even meant at this level. However I had a reasonably clear thought. And I didn’t know if that might ever work.”
The following day he had a blackout.
“Abruptly, I light into absolute blackness,” he says. “And I wakened a number of hours later within the hospital. My girlfriend from again then was there, my mother and father [were there] and everybody was shocked. And I used to be like, ‘What the fuck is occurring right here? What are you guys doing right here?’ And that was a little bit trippy. As a result of they advised me I had a seizure at this level, too. I didn’t actually perceive what that was about.”
That yr, he had seven extra seizures.
“I went via a bunch of mind exams, and no person may discover something,” he says. “And it solely occurred whereas I used to be driving. So I had like, seven out-of-body experiences. I had 5 automobile accidents and by no means even had a scratch.”
Though having totaled a number of automobiles by now, docs couldn’t put a cause to the rhyme.
“They by no means discovered what occurred… all the pieces was fantastic. Individuals couldn’t clarify what the hell was happening.”
The Darkish
Nychos explains that he didn’t know what was taking place along with his physique and started having intense goals.
“I didn’t even smoke weed, didn’t drink alcohol,” he says. “At this level, I used to be simply so depressed, and I felt like I used to be a hazard to different individuals. Like ‘What the fuck is occurring?’ , You’re simply type of like via puberty, and now you’re [once] once more fully fucking misplaced on the planet. Like [when] I used to be 19, I had a dream of this half-rotten, white rabbit. He was actually telling me what I’m right here to do. He advised me that I’m alleged to do precisely what I used to be making an attempt to do, that I’m right here to be an artist, and that I’m right here to color. That that is my sole objective.”
Whereas confused in regards to the dream’s origins, he understood it as a message.
“I solely knew that one thing was speaking with me, and I believe possibly my notion of actuality was already coming extra from a religious facet than I even understood,” he says. “I by no means stated, ‘Oh, I’m tremendous religious.’ Like, you actually didn’t give a shit. The one faith was graffiti.”
After this expertise, his work started to get a lot darker. He had simply had a nasty breakup that rekindled his love of hardcore and metallic music, and issues had been seeming to spiral a bit for him.
“I used to be thriving and bathing on this rage,” Nychos says. “And utilizing that vitality, I fully remodeled right into a analysis nerd. A world of my very own existence, and likewise, identical to liberating myself of all the pieces I assumed graffiti was alleged to be within the first place, fully. I received unfastened, you already know, I didn’t give a shit about something anymore… I realized lots about how graffiti was alleged to work. And I used to be like, ‘Alright, I realized these guidelines. Now fuck it… I paint how I need to paint.’”
His artwork advanced, and he actually began utilizing colour.
“Earlier than, I used to be simply experimenting, considering I’ve to, to color the perfect piece. After which, in some unspecified time in the future, I didn’t give a shit about it anymore. And that’s once I freed myself, that’s when items grew to become actually, actually sick. ? As a result of all that bullshit we like we fall into, particularly in a spot just like the graffiti scene, you must look the identical as the opposite one as a result of they’re the actual deal. However if you happen to look the identical as the opposite one, you’re a biter or a copycat. It’s this hypocritical bullshit.”
It was a shift.
“That’s once I began to color and never simply render items,” he says. “In 2010, I received sponsored by Montana [Colors].”
The Awakening
In 2013, after checking out his paint wants and following a powerful need to succeed in the following degree, Nychos moved to San Francisco.
“It’s been years of simply fucking graffiti insanity every single day, like murals,” he says. “Items every single day, each evening. I had these years the place I don’t suppose I did anything than that, doesn’t matter if it’s like one other dissection piece or a fucking blockbuster (a graffiti model that includes massive murals of letters) on the truck facet. It’s identical to, go, go, go! But when you don’t deal with precisely what’s already brewing, on the floor, it doesn’t matter how a lot you paint.”
In 2015, he premiered a documentary The Deepest Depths of the Burrow to large success in Vienna, Austria. However the very subsequent day after the premiere, he was in a bicycle accident that injured his shoulder and neck. Though he thought he had quickly healed from this accident because of an injection and went again on the highway, it shortly grew to become clear that issues weren’t alright.
“I used to color any interior ache away, however graffiti didn’t actually assist anymore,” he says. “So in 2018, I used to be able to die. I did 5-MeO-DMT. [I thought] ‘Looks like I’m gonna die, what am I afraid of?’ I had already began to go to a shrink. I assumed possibly I’ve some psychological subject. She helped me lots with misery, however ultimately, I received this message from a shaman, and I used to be like, ‘I’ve nothing to lose, man. I’m gonna die.’ 5-MeO-DMT was defined to me as a dying/rebirth expertise, and I’m reminded of the out-of-body experiences I had once I was 19.”
Two hits in, he was feeling wonderful, however on the third, he actually blasted off.
“I used to be like, ‘I need to heal.’ I didn’t even know what that was asking for at this level,” he says. “I meant, like bodily heal. Hastily, I’m on the journey as a blood vessel, like floating via your entire being. I already noticed my entire anatomy, and I used to be like, I see how the muscle groups are like connecting issues, little traumas in my muscle groups system was like, letting go, and I used to be like, ‘That is wild’… I used to be gone. I used to be out. First, I used to be in my mind, and all of the neurons related, after which all lit up. I used to be simply this tiny creature floating in there. After which all of it disappeared, and the neurons grew to become stars, so abruptly, I used to be in outer house and type of floated via that. After which all the pieces began to show, and the white of the celebs, and the blackness from the darkish matter, grew to become probably the most intense, psychedelic kaleidoscope imaginative and prescient I’ve ever seen or skilled. There was an interconnectedness of shapes that you simply can not copy…
“My soul was sucked out of my eyeballs and my mouth. Identical to it was dragging me there. And I’m like, ‘Alright, I assume that is how I die,’ and you may really feel the way it comes up out of your tummy after which the following second like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, I’m going to die.’ Then the good management system of the ego is available in. Concern, proper? And the concern of shedding management and also you begin screaming like a motherfucker on your life. Till you notice there’s no level in resisting. That was the final word very last thing I bear in mind, like, ‘That is fucking it. No goodbye.’ You actually need to make the choice to let go of your physique to interrupt via the matrix. As quickly as my ego left, my true self was on the opposite facet of the matrix, within the void in full blackness. I spotted, ‘Wait a second, that is greater than dying.’”
Nychos says his stomach cracked open, and he may really feel vitality rising.
“The sunshine was hitting me, after which I notice, no, no, no, I am the sunshine. I’m the fucking universe. Simply feeling the superpower of the universe rising inside me, having an understanding that that is our core life vitality in us.”
Then he hit a dimension full of Hindu and Buddhist entities.
“They had been like, ‘You had been chosen. Now you already know what you had been chosen for! You lastly fucking made it. This type of happiness or feeling of being free is what the universe is made out of. I believe lots of people [play these types of] experiences down as a result of they get again into their concern and their management system, and their thoughts begins mendacity to them once more as a result of that’s what ego does. I felt like I went house for 10,000 years, and I got here again 25 minutes later.”
Subsequent, he noticed his existence as a e-book, and pages inside him started to be ripped out.
“It began to be that all the pieces necessary was ripped out, and it began to be extra painful and magical,” he says. “And it’s loopy how while you attain the purpose of full happiness, how painful it’s to be totally, totally joyful. And that’s one thing I’ll undoubtedly not neglect.”
Experiencing the trauma he had in life and reaching the dissolution of his ego despatched him additional on the inventive path.
“Creating artwork isn’t solely your remedy, it’s additionally a message for others; you’re doing it for others,” he says. “You’re triggering, subconsciously, their trauma to allow them to heal. It’s what music has all the time finished for me. I began to know that there’s a factor referred to as creativeness. I’ve understood that reincarnation is an actual factor. It is part of life and dying, and consciousness. It’s what we’re doing. We’re entering into a circle. Life isn’t linear. It’s additionally not a circle. It’s a fucking spiral. With extra consciousness and self-awareness, you get it’s like, rattling, creativeness. It’s nothing. That’s our rationalization for one thing which doesn’t exist. However I understood that it’s only a reminiscence from the previous. So what a artistic individual does, who actually paints from his soul, is he paints his trauma and the experiences he has had, that are nonetheless deeply rooted in his genetics.”
This collective expertise was captured in one in every of Nychos’s latest reveals in Downtown Los Angeles, which ran between February and Might. Referred to as The Awakening, it was an expansive present that walked the person via this transcendent expertise. The present was constructed as an example the journey from the bodily world to the matrix. You noticed his extra anatomical work earlier than journeying into the darker, deeper parts of self—it was a must-see for followers of any period of his artwork.
“I’m right here to do that to heal myself. And I can even solely heal once I heal others,” Nychos explains. “The aim is to open the throat chakra to talk my fact, my primal fact or no matter, much more to know who I’m. And in addition, I can truly create from a pure place of affection. And I really feel like that is the place the place persons are actually going to vibrate towards as a result of they’re already vibrating to this as a result of it’s their trauma. If it comes from love, that’s the place you need to be. Nicely, the work of it. This present is an introduction.”
@nychos
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This text was initially Up to date within the September 2022 subject of Excessive Occasions Journal.