Meet Nic Gregory

October 19, 2026

Exhibition Details

Paintings on view October 3 – 17 at ace/121 Gallery

Let’s begin by introducing you to our readers and visitors. Can you tell us about yourself, your background, and your artistic practice?

Hi! My names Nic and I am currently a painter, creating portraits and landscapes that allow color, shapes and the rough sketch shine through. My style of painting is know as “Unfinished”. Most of my career has been spent working for major Hollywood studios on animated TV and Film, theme park design, publishing and live entertainment. I’m proud to say that billions of people have seen my work but my name is always hidden in the background. My “Unfinished” paintings allow me to step forward and put a face and name to my art.

Although I have always been a creative I have side stepped into other fields and became a pro wrestler, tried basketball and boxing, produced music, played bass clarinet, been a graphic designer and lived and travelled across the world. It has been one hell of an adventure so far.

 

Your work first came to the attention of Glendale Arts when your animation short Suddenly was selected to be screened at the 2022 Glendale International Film Festival. Four years later, your solo show, ALL UNFINISHED, is on view at ace/121 Gallery. Tell us how your creative work has evolved over this period and what inspired the collection featured in this exhibition.

That’s right! My film Suddenly was in the festival and it was one of my favorite screenings of my film as there was a great crowd of animation fans in attendance. Since then I worked on a lot more animated shows and films like “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man”, Cartoon Networks Invincible Fight Girl and Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. However, as I worked on studio work I was always sketching and trying to simplify my art. I noticed no matter what I worked on that my favorite part of any piece of art was always the sketch, color block in or shape exploration.

These stages were always loose and free, giving the art the most life. I had always liked the first stages of any creative piece and I tried to keep that idea as my focus moving forward. As it evolved I also started focusing on my favorite subject matter which is small moments and places. Things that get overlooked by most, like the expression on someone’s face, their simple body language or a location that no one else is taking notice of. All of these elements started to shape my style.

 

ALL UNFINISHED welcomes viewers to step back from the finish line and discover the beauty of what happens during the creative process, before a work reaches a point of “perfection.” While creating this collection, how did you determine when a piece was ready to be shown while staying true to the exhibition’s theme of embracing the unfinished?

That’s always a tough one. To know when to say something is finished. I think I got to a stage where I want the initial appea to still has the life in the lines and the experimentation of color and shape, then I try and see when the figure feels like it is recognizable and then I just stop. I may balance out colors or refocus the value so the eye knows where to look, but I stop before details are too crisp and I never chase perfection. It doesn’t exist.

 

Billions around the world have encountered your work through television, film, publishing, games, theme parks, and some of popular culture’s most recognizable characters and worlds, including Spider-Man, Batman, Beavis and Butthead, Mickey and Friends, and Harry Potter.

Can you give us a glimpse into how you navigate the differences between working on collaborative projects for the screen, where your contributions are part of a larger creative vision, and creating your own artwork, where every decision and detail is guided entirely by your personal artistic vision?
 
I love getting to step into these well known worlds that people love. It was a dream of mine to play in those stories and alongside those characters. I’ve had a career that most artists dream of and worked very hard to do so. Getting to try my hand at so many different styles of art has been challenging but I never shy away. I love getting to team up with the most talented artists in the world and learn from them, and that was always the real goal, to take advantage of the studio system that attracts the most talented people and learn from them.
 
I always saw the names of the artists in the credits when I was a kid and I would see their job title and imagine working alongside them. Even though the studios no longer foster the ongoing mentorship and influence of seasoned artists, I took it upon myself to watch and learn from them whenever I could. Sometimes I have taken on roles I have very little experience in but I love the challenge of learning from others and animation is so collaborative that you have no choice but to take on the skills and processes of the rest of the team. You can get stuck in your own task for weeks at a time but as long as you take it upon yourself to stop and look around at the process, you can learn so much.
 
Observation has helped me learn enough to try my hand at background paint, color design, prop design, background design, concept and visual development, character design and more. All of these skills now inform my personal work and “Unfinished” style, especially what I learnt about color and shapes. As much as I love animation and working with big crews, it’s freeing to not have interference or the opinion of others to slow you down when making my own art. Yes it’s also daunting because I can overthink it sometimes, but I don’t need permission to try something and experimentation is allowed to inform my decisions. One of my favorite parts about my personal work is when I make a mistake. Unlike animation, there’s no digital undo, no team to critique, no mistakes to be fixed. I can let the unexpected surprise me and work with it. It makes it so much more enjoyable and entertaining. Personal work allows me to lose myself in the canvas and the world disappears for a while. I love that feeling.
 
 
As a contemporary artist, director, concept artist, and background painter, your creative career has spanned both fine art and entertainment. Is there a medium, technique or type of project you haven’t explored yet that you’d like to pursue?
 
Absolutely! I am always thinking up new creative ideas. I’ve tried clay sculpture, wood work and building weird contraptions to put my art on. Right now I have a few ideas for using lighting, large scale immersive art that an audience can walk into, and maybe try some 3D sculpting and printing. I’m certain my exploration into what I can do on a canvas will continue as well. Using paint and pencils will never disappear and making physical artworks as opposed to digital paintings is always so much more rewarding. I also hope to experiment a bit more with animation styles like stop motion, or hybrid animation with real handmade sets.
 
 
Is there anything else you would like to share with readers or visitors encountering your work?
 
Enjoy the small moments that some of my work offers. The littlest things like a persons stare and pose can say so much more than you realize. Take your time and just look at my art and the creative worlds of others and treat them like a window, look at the view and let your brain do and think what it wants. Hopefully it inspires people to get creative and make their own art. You will see more of my paintings in the near future and keep a look out for my next animated short film and other studio work to come.

About Nic Gregory

Nic’s career in the animation, theme park and wrestling industries has seen him work as a director, senior artist and pro wrestler. All the while he has been an intensely focused artist, whether it has been for the world’s biggest entertainment companies or his own contemporary art. Now he is pushing more than ever to explore his UNFINISHED style and give the world artwork that is vibrant, full of life and allows the unfinished to sing.

Find out more about Nic Gregory: @nicgregoryart nicgregory.com

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