Nick Fraser

Nick Fraser (1946–2023) was a self-taught British outsider artist whose private, expansive and emotionally charged body of work is now being recognised after decades out of public view. Born into East London's working-class culture, Fraser spent more than thirty years working at Tate & Lyle while living a life defined by duty, routine, care and solitude. Behind that public identity, he sustained a private creative world of remarkable scale and intensity.

Fraser taught himself to paint without art-school instruction, using the practical materials available to him: household paint, construction scraps, decorating tools, cardboard, wood and found boards. Many works are large-scale and multi-panel, forming fierce, modern polyptychs. They carry echoes of sacred art, religious anxiety, cosmic symbolism and raw abstraction, while repeatedly returning to the body, identity, masculinity, consciousness and the unspoken interior life.

His story is also a story of preservation. Mark O'Shaughnessy, Nick's lifelong friend, documentarian and advocate, recorded rare archive footage and protected the memory of the man behind the paintings. Today, Mark and his son Marcus O'Shaughnessy are bringing Fraser's work into the light through exhibitions, film, research, prints and public storytelling. Nick Fraser: Chapter 2 continues that journey, inviting new audiences to encounter a hidden East End painter whose work speaks urgently to vulnerability, private truth and the need to recognise artists who lived beyond the structures of the art world.

Marcus O'Shaughnessy is a curator, creative producer, digital storyteller and founder of Imaginative Reaction CIC, a creative platform built to support emerging, outsider and underrepresented artists through curation, collaboration and community. His work draws on more than a decade in youth engagement, alternative education and mental health support, alongside a parallel creative life as a music producer, DJ and multidisciplinary practitioner.

In 2023, Marcus stepped into a deeper curatorial role following the death of Nick Fraser, a visionary East End artist and close family friend whose vast body of work had remained largely unseen. Working alongside his father Mark O'Shaughnessy — Nick's lifelong friend, muse and documentarian — Marcus became a key custodian of the collection. He curated the debut public exhibition Nick Fraser: Chapter One at The Crypt Gallery, London, where artwork, archive film, live performance and storytelling combined to introduce audiences to the man behind the paintings.

Marcus's curatorial approach is rooted in emotional truth, access and legacy. Rather than presenting Nick Fraser as a discovery detached from life, he frames the work through friendship, class, care, memory and the right of unheard artists to be seen. Through Imaginative Reaction and the Nick Fraser project, he is building a bridge between private creative worlds and public recognition, while creating space for new artists who might otherwise remain overlooked.