Nicholas Devlin | functional art, sculpture, & furniture

Photo credit: Matthew Gordon & Ricardo Lara

Nicholas Devlin (Ó Dobhailéin), born 1993 in Canada, is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary sculptor working in both fine and functional art. His practice integrates fantasy, Celtic-Gaelic mythology, and folklore while remaining fundamentally anchored in the concept of home.

Best known for his distinctive mix of figurative and abstract language, Devlin depicts fantastical architectural landscapes and surreal motifs within sculptural works. His pieces question the categorical divisions between fine and functional art, transforming objects traditionally associated with domestic space into sculptural art. To obscure the materiality of his handcrafted works and reinforce their dreamlike qualities, Devlin has developed a personalized combination of mediums. Notable projects include The Alchemist’s Folly, a gazebo-like structure, and his series of vanities and mirrors, both of which have received critical and public recognition.

Devlin’s work has been exhibited at IRL Gallery in NYC; Superhouse Gallery in NYC and Milan, Italy; and Objective Gallery in NYC and Shanghai, China. His pieces are held in various private national and international collections. He has participated in Scope Art Fair (2024) in Miami, represented by GCS Agency; Collectible Design Fair (2024) in NYC; and Design Miami Fair (2022) in Miami represented by Objective Gallery. In 2024, he was named a recipient of Sight Unseen’s American Design Hot List award. His work has been featured in Curbed, Artnet, The Art Newspaper, Art News, Architectural Digest, Sight Unseen, Domino, Hypebeast, Surface, Stirpad, Pink Essay and more. He holds an MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies from Cambridge University and a Bachelor of Environmental Design (Honors) from the University of British Columbia.

CONTACT

For inquiries, please email hello@nicholasdevlin.com or send a direct message on instagram @nicholas_devlin

Okay, the lights are on but is anybody home

One sketch and many many hours later...

This started as three separate pieces, became five, then morphed back into one. There was this idea of isolated cottages and villages drifting through the sky and connecting to a larger castle like place. We ended up with a wall sculpture that also happens to be a mirror. Thank you to the wonderful musician @lewisgrant for making it possible

I'm a little late but Happy New Year!

thank you @markmarklimlim for pic 3

What a Relief!

In my head this is a very historic, extremely original, and highly accurate wall carving from long long ago depicting the multilayered meaning of the word "Relief"

Torn Veil, I made this new piece for the @scopeartshow and will be showing it with @gcs_agency Dec 3-8th in Miami. I wanted it to feel like the walls were peeling open to reveal not just drywall and studs (boring!) but a parallel world. I'll be at the show Dec 3rd, and 4th so come say hi! Thank you to @nick6rown and @mynameisvic__ for the opportunity!

Twilight Sepulcher

From Sketch to Reality. I say this every time but I really enjoyed making this one, it came with some new challenges and it was nice to go back to a slightly smaller and more detailed scale for a bit

Thanks again to everyone who came out to see Alchemist's Folly at @collectiblefair! I'm back in the studio and working away on new pieces but had to share these detail shots @matthewgordonstudio (photos) and @thericardolara (portraits) got. I Love how they turned out. And another big thank you to Designer @harryheissmann and our wonderful client, without whom this piece would not exist! <3

Please behold... The Alchemist's Folly! My first large-scale immersive outdoor sculpture, presented at Collectible Fair's 2024 inaugural NYC debut.

A year ago, Harry Heissmann asked what I thought of building something along the lines of a giant outdoor strawberry gazebo. I continually tried to evoke a more abstract feeling, and over the six months it took to sculpt it entirely by hand in my home studio, it organically developed, constantly changing and shifting. I was looking at Surrealist painters, specifically Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning, and of course, Hieronymus Bosch and his otherworldly strawberries.

I wanted the piece to feel as if it was in this ethereal moment of transition, one that pulls you in, envelops you, and transports you to another place.

There are a few Easter eggs in the name if you know what to look for, but I was mainly thinking about alchemy—the supposed transformation of matter or a seemingly magical process of creation or combination. Whereas a folly is "a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park." Historically, follies were built on estates to resemble fake ruins and look as if they’d always been there. And with the passage of time, they would. BUT a folly can also be a foolish idea or mistake, which was quite funny to me!

Photos 1-4: @simonleungphoto

This is Lumière now 😏😏, feel old yet?

The crown jewel of the Potty in Paris project for @elimizrahi and @uchronia_world

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Photo credit: Matthew Gordon & Ricardo Lara

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