Nicholas Campbell has been busy painting paradise. In his new solo exhibition at Amanita on Bowery, gold, purple, and black splash explode over aluminum Dibond—a break from his usual canvas. The paintings chart a psychological landscape shaped by the ambient hostility of modern life. What does that state of mind yield? Meditative, booming fields of color that rupture and reassemble in real time. To mark the show’s opening, his girlfriend Bella Newman administered a short and sweet questionnaire, covering rejection, swag, trends, and envy.
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What is the main thing going through your head right now?
I had so much more going through my head last night, but now that everything is kind of where it needs to be installed, I’m not thinking about that much. I’m honestly so ready to get some sleep.
Where do you go when you run out of inspiration?
I’ve never had to get inspired to do anything. Italy was pretty inspiring though.
What is your process for starting a painting?
I just think about how shitty my life would be if I wasn’t painting.
How do you know when a work of yours is done?
I just need to love the work. I either love it or hate it.
How did you decide to switch from canvas to metal?
Painting on metal, especially when you prime it correctly, you avoid the absorption and it’s super flat. It creates this glow and charge, and sliding motion with the paint and it’s so much more gratifying to me. It feels so much more contemporary. It’s like contending with industrial tools that belong to us now. It’s important to do something singular with paint. We’ve sort of unearthed all the possibilities, and while you may not be inventing a new movement, you can manipulate the paint in your own way. Being singular makes you valuable.
If you had to have a logline for the way you see the world, what would it be?
It’s a zero sum world for me. The struggle with that is this kind of aspiration for dominance that is really compelling and beautiful to me, to develop that in yourself. You see it a lot in rap music. That’s kind of what art does for me.
So what’s your favorite color?
Purple. Well, gold and purple together is pretty cool.
What’s your everyday uniform?
My Ferragamo belt, and some Ferragamo loafers. And, like, underwear and stuff. Usually a polo too. 
How do you handle rejection?
I don’t remember the last time that happened to me.
Where have you been that’s impacted your art the most?
When I moved to New York. Nowhere else even compares. The competition of being an artist here makes you so much better at what you do. You feel like you’re in the rotting heart of the world empire. I think going to Italy definitely made me way classier, kind of introduced me to real taste.
If you had unlimited money and materials at your disposal, what would you make?
I would have assistants paint hyper realistic images of beautiful women in the passenger seats of Italian sports cars. Then I would frame them in the most decadent gold leafed frames you could imagine.
What’s one artwork that’s had a lasting impact on your approach?
The self portraits by Rudolf Stingel. They are so self aware and ballsy. Also beautiful in this melancholic way. He’s just affirming himself. Also his massive gold-plated styrofoam pieces.
What art trend are you most sick of?
Stuff that’s too inside baseball.
How would you define success?
Success is when you get what you want. Also the amount of people who would willingly want to trade places with you.
Do you have people you would want to trade places with?
No, I’m too attached to my own story. Too self absorbed. But when I feel envy, I know I’m going in the right direction. I’m confronting something in another person that I want but don’t have yet. I even feel that when I look at art I like.
What was the last dream that you had?
I was dreaming that I survived a plane crash. The plane nose dived into the ocean and then we descended into another world, and at the bottom of that world was a strip mall. Then the plane disappeared from the dream and I was just walking into a 7-Eleven to buy Vitamin water.
If you could resurrect one artist, who would it be?
J.M.W. Turner. But also, who was as cool as Picasso?
