NICK MAY Artist & Filmmaker
Nick May studied Sculpture at St. Martin’s School of Art, London and Film Direction at the National Film & Television School.
Solo exhibitions include:
‘Hydrosphere Blues, Watercolour Works by Nick May’ Heaton Cooper Studio Gallery, Grasmere, Cumbria, UK (2023).
‘FOODCHAIN, Film and Photography by Nick May & Ben Holland’, Usher Gallery, Lincoln (2011). LIGHT HOUSE, Wolverhampton (2009) Arts Council England Visual Art Awards. Nominated for Prix Pictet by Gallery of Photography, Dublin.
‘Till the Cows Come Home, Film and Photography by Nick May’, Tullie House Art Gallery, Carlisle, (2006) Arts Council England Visual Art Awards. Redeye Special Award.
Films include:
‘Fair Game,’ (2002). Northern Production Award.
‘In the Mind of Man’ (2000) National Lottery Commission.
‘The Hills are Alive’ (1989) Nominated for Prix Italia and Flaherty Award.
‘John Cooper Clarke, Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt’ (1982) Nominated for Grierson and Flaherty Awards.
He has exhibited widely, including recent watercolour work in the UK, the USA and China and lives and works in Cumbria, UK.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Solo Exhibitions
2023 ‘HYDROSPHERE BLUES’ Watercolour Works by Nick May
Archive Gallery, Heaton Cooper Studio, Grasmere, Cumbria, UK
2011 ‘FOODCHAIN, Photography & Film by Nick May & Ben Holland’
Usher Gallery, Lincoln
2009 ‘FOODCHAIN, Photography & Film by Nick May & Ben Holland’ Light House, Wolverhampton
(Photography nominated for Prix Pictet, 2010 by Gallery of Photography, Ireland)
‘FOODCHAIN’ installation, SEAS international, Skegness
2006 ‘Till the Cows Come Home… Film and Photography by Nick May’
Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle
2004 ‘Till the cows come home…’Folly Gallery, Lancaster
‘Till the cows come home…’ Abbott Lodge, Penrith
‘FMD; Fragments, Movies and Documents’
Harbour Gallery, Whitehaven
2000 ‘Out of Hours’ Video Installation,
National Lottery Public Art Commission, Barrow in Furness
1999 ‘Conference’ Video Installation,
Lanternhouse Ulverston
‘Zero Tolerance’ Video Installation,
Lanternhouse Ulverston
1998 ‘All Routes Open’ Video Installation,
National Lottery Outreach Commission, Arts Centre Washington
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Art of Water, James May Gallery, Wisconsin, US, ARTSY
2024 Art of Water, James May Gallery, Wisconsin, US, ARTSY
2023 Art of Water, James May Gallery, Wisconsin, US, ARTSY
2022-23 SSA 130 Years, Scottish Royal Academy, Edinburgh
2022 Art of Water, James May Gallery (no relation) US, ARTSY
2021-22 SSA Annual Exhibition, Scottish Royal Academy, Edinburgh
2021 Art of Water V, James May Gallery, Wisconsin, US, ARTSY
2020 Post Covid-19 Era. Independent & Image Art Space, Chongqing, China
2019 -20 ‘The Locked Room’, Laure Genillard Gallery. London
2018 ‘You have two cows’ Kalmar Konstmuseum, Sweden
2013 ‘Visualising the Real Rural’, Crown Gallery, Carlisle
2011 ‘The Moment of Privacy has Passed’, Usher Gallery, Lincoln
2009 Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm. In participation with Kultivator
2007 Art Gallery of Siauliai, University, Lithuania
Rytojus 2007 – ‘Migration-migracija’ Warehouse Gallery, Kendal
2006 Documenting FMD’, Holden Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University
2005 ‘The Cultural Documents of Foot & Mouth’, ICIA, University of Bath
1999-2000 ‘Sea Change’, Dock Museum, Barrow in Furness
1999 Cumbria – Wendland. Lüchow, Germany
1998-99 ‘corpoREAL‘, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle
1998 ‘Video Soup’, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh Festival
‘Artists in Arms’, British Red Cross Society:
St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
Graffiti, Mansfield Place Church, Edinburgh
The Royal Geographic Society, London
1997 Works on Paper, Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast
1996 Cumbria Visual Arts Festival, Harbour Gallery, Whitehaven
‘Beauty?’ University of Northumbria at Newcastle
1983 Photographers Gallery, London:
‘Alex McDowell, Rocking Russian Designs & 3 Kliks – Film & Video’
1981 ICA, London, ‘Rocking Russian Designs & 3 Kliks – Film & Video’
1974 A F D Gallery, Fitzroy Centre, London, ‘Nick May, Super 8 films’
Selected Film Credits
2009 Three films by Nick May and Ben Holland:
FOODCHAIN (cinema short) 00:13:21
(MOVES International Festival of Movement on Screen, 2010)
FOODCHAIN (exhibition installation film # 1 – testimony) 1:35:20
FOODCHAIN (exhibition installation film # 2 – montage) 1:02:34
2001-2006 TILL THE COWS COME HOME…
Seven Films: Producer, Director, Camera, Editor:
‘Pyres’00:46:09
‘Elizabeth and Ian Batey, Bell Mount Farm, Penrith, March 2002 ’00:22:20
‘Claire and Stephen Bland, Abbott Lodge Farm, 2002-2004’00:40:44
‘Catherine and Chris Chappelhow and family. Clifton Dykes, 00:25:50
‘Steadman and Judy Dodd, West View Farm, Temple Sowerby, 2002-03, 00:17:48
‘The Harrison Family, Woodhouse Farm, Cliburn and Aimee’s Story’1:28:00
2004 ‘MERZ film’ 68:00:00, Producer, Director, Camera, Editor
2002 ‘FAIR GAME’ 00:16:00, Prod/Dir/Camera/Editor (Nothern Film Award)
(Kinofilm, 7th Manchester International Short Film Festival)
2000 ‘IN THE MIND OF MAN’
00:36:00 DV-DVD, Producer, Co-writer, Director, Lighting Camera, Editor
National Lottery Commission, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick
1989 ‘THE HILLS ARE ALIVE’
16mm 00:52:00
Director, Writer, Researcher, Co-producer
Channel Four Television, Border Television, NM Productions
(Ecofilm 89, Lille) Nominated for Flaherty Award and Prix Italia
1982 ‘JOHN COOPER CLARKE – TEN YEARS IN AN OPEN NECKED SHIRT’
16mm, 00:60:00
Director, Researcher, Writer
Arts Council of Great Britain and Channel Four Television
(London Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival; ICA Cinema;
ABC Television Australia; New York Museum of Broadcasting; INPUT 83, Liege
Nominated for Grierson & Flaherty Documentary Awards
1981 Three Videos for IGGY POP ‘Soldier’ Album
Co-Director, Co-Producer, Editor. Rocking Russian, 3 Kliks, Arista Records
1977 ‘INVADERS’
16mm B/W 1:27:00
Director, Writer, Lighting Camera, Editor
London Film Festival Choice 1977
1973 ‘Feye Lesley’ # 1 & # 2, 16mm B/W 00:10:00 and Video B/W 00:45:00
Director, Writer, Lighting Camera, Editor
Feature Film Development
1983-1985 Director, Researcher, Co-Writer, Feature Film Scripts:
RAFFY AND SEAN and SECOND DEATH, for Channel Four Television
Residencies & Fellowships
1999 Northern Arts Fellowship, Video installation, W S International, Ulverston
Selected Commissioned Works
2007-8 Senhouse Roman Museum, Maryport
Production of film, photographic & interactive video works
2006 ‘Feast of Fenland’ East Midlands Museums Partnership,
Research & Photography, touring exhibition to 16 East Midlands Museums
Selected Publications & Contributions
2020 ‘THE LOCKED ROOM, Four Years that Shook Art Education, 1969-73 (The MIT Press)
2006 Vertigo, Volume 3 / Issue 3 / Autumn 2006, Feature ‘Till the cows come home’
1990 Contributed to ‘LIVING IN THE SHADOW, The story of the people of Sellafield’
Jean McSorley. PAN BOOKS 1990
Consultancies
1990-1991 Greenpeace UK & Greenpeace International
Selected Conference & Film Festival Presentations
2013 ‘Visualising the Rural’ University of Cumbria
2006 ‘Grains of Truth, The New Rural Photography’ Lancaster University
2005 ‘From FSA to FMD; The New Rural Photographic Documentary Tradition’ ICIA, Bath
‘NEW FIELDS; Art and Agriculture’ Leeds City Art Gallery
‘The New Rural Photography’ Q Arts, Derby
2003 ‘Rural Arts’ Eden Arts, Penrith
2001 ‘Grass Roots’ Chipping, Lancashire
1989 ‘ECOVISION ’89’ Lille, France
1983 ‘INPUT ’83’ International Festival of Public Broadcasting, Liege, Belgium
Teaching: Nick has taught Fine Art at University of Cumbria, and Film Production at Northumbria University, University of Glasgow and Shefield Hallam University.
Qualifications
1974-77 THE NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL, Beaconsfield Studios, UK
ANFTS, Direction for Fiction and Documentary Film
1970-73 St. MARTIN’S SCHOOL OF ART, LONDON. Dip AD (BA Hons) Fine Art, Sculpture
Nick May Studio 