Shayla Nolan is a painter living and working out of northern New Jersey. Educated formally at The College of New Jersey in Art Education and Art History, Shay draws from her contemporary and historical understandings of visual art and its importance to human thought, emotion, and communication to create abstract indirect self-portraits. Shay has worked as a high school art teacher and an arts administrator, informing her creative motivation to practice and promote artmaking as a meta-cognitive act. Shayla has been painting since graduating college in 2020, and has since shown works in group exhibitions in NJ and Denver, and most recently showed in her solo exhibition POOLS in the summer of 2023.
SHAYLA IS
Using a high-low approach by combining simple neutral acrylics with experimental lustrous pigments, I create works that seek to explore individuality as a form of growth. Inspired by the innate need for human beings to express and create, my works depict abstract representations of my personal identity. My process of planning compositions, defining forms, and mixing colors provides an opportunity to self-reflect, and practice defining the beauty of individuality through the creative act.
My process is rooted in the desire to make things that, quite simply, look beautiful and bring me joy. So often in life, we define ourselves visually by the way we look, rather than the things that make us happy. Through my paintings, I seek to express who I am through a visually abstract representation of the way I feel, who I am, and the things I love. I am drawn towards velvety blacks, complex neutrals, and all different types of shine undulating together through crisp, flowing, lines.
Informed by my background in art education and art history, I am fascinated by the ways in which people have always naturally and organically felt compelled to create art. I intend for my paintings to serve as a vehicle for my own journey of self-exploration, and to encourage the natural, and innately human practice of therapeutic self-expression in others. Therefore, my creative practice approaches artmaking not as an answer, but as an ongoing question, and a form of metacognitive self-care.
CURRICULUM VITAE
​Solo Exhibitions
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2023 POOLS Solo Exhibition, Passaic County Arts Center, Hawthorne, NJ
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Group Exhibitions
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2025 Mind + Care, The Martino Gallery at Maryland Hall, Annapolis, MD
2024 Hoboken Art Month, Hoboken Business Alliance, Hoboken, NJ
2024 The Affordable Art Show: Summer Edition, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ
2023 The Affordable Art Show, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ
2023 Through the Windows, Hoboken Business Alliance, Hoboken, NJ
2023 Inside Outside: Beyond the Form, Open Door Curation, Denver, CO
2023 Abstracts Art Exhibition, J. Mane Gallery, Voorhees, NJ (Virtual)
2021 Figurative, Light Space & Time, Jupiter, FL (Virtual)
2018 Site Specific: The Art of Community, TCNJ Art Gallery, Ewing NJ
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Publications
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2021 Strictly Gratitude Magazine
2019 Co-Author in ArtBeat Magazine
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Presentations and Speeches
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2018 AENJ Conference, Long Branch NJ
2018 TCNJ Parents & Family Weekend, Ewing NJ
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Awards
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“Rothko Inspired Jumbo” Silver Award - J. Mane Gallery 2023 Abstracts
“Rothko Inspired Jumbo” Finalist Award - Teravarna 5th Color Competition
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Teaching Experience
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2023 - Present Assistant Director at One River School, Englewood NJ
2020 - 2023 Full-Time Faculty at Randolph High School, Randolph NJ
Painting, Intro to Photography, & AP Art History
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Education
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2020 BA from The College of New Jersey, Ewing NJ; Summa Cum Laude
Art Education Major | Art History Minor
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