Nicholas Pye makes films, videos and photographs, and is often the protagonist of his own work. His elegant and stark images reflect as much on the personal sphere as on broader existential issues. Pye was born in Torquay, England in 1976. He began his career as a musician, but after making four albums in the 1990s he transitioned to the visual arts. He completed an undergraduate degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2002 and an MFA at Concordia University in Film Production in 2005.

Much of his early career focused on a collaborative practice with his then wife Sheila McGrath (Sheila Pye). They began exhibiting soon after graduating, and enjoyed some early success with shows in Toronto (notably Angell Gallery), and later at various European and American art institutions. Mostly known for their dramatic photographs, their practice also involved performance, installation and film. Their work was meticulously staged, and often referenced or actually reenacted art historical sources or religious scenes. Their exposed and erotically charged bodies seem artificially frozen, caught in some empty act like climbing an unsupported ladder or spouting arching liquids from their mouths. In these resigned, heavy poses they stand in direct opposition, within an unspoken conflict. Some have argued that they are engaging in a critique of heterosexual cultural constraints, others believe their work simply explored their marriage in all its complexities. In 2010 the couple officially divorced. Their post-marital collaborative practice received much notoriety, as the fascination around the entanglement of their romantic and working relationships grew. Eventually, Nicholas Pye began to assert his solo practice and in 2011 he began a doctoral degree in Visual Art at York University.

In his solo work Pye continues to grapple with the founding questions of photography, indulging in the medium’s ability to present reality but also to subvert it. In 2015 Pye’s solo exhibition Rise and Fall was presented at Birch Contemporary in Toronto and Curators Office, Washington, DC, and was accompanied by a catalogue. His solo work continues to explore grand themes of duration, presence and absence. By pointing the lens on himself he underscores the performative and vulnerable position of the artist, revealing perhaps the self-doubt that every artist faces.

Pye has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, including at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts in Melbourne, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Power Plant in Toronto, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. His videos have been screened at numerous international film festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival, The Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and Les Rencontres Internationales in Paris, Berlin and Madrid.