About
Confronting insecurities and fears, embracing shortcomings, and contending with the burden of one’s own identity and truth are of paramount importance for becoming more concretely formed. My current studio practice maintains this endeavor: cutting through, digging out, excavating, laying bare wounds—past and present, temporary and permanent—on the surfaces of paper and canvas.
—Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Gagosian is pleased to present Hollow and Cut, new paintings and works on paper by Nathaniel Mary Quinn. This is his first exhibition with the gallery.
Quinn’s composite portraits probe the relationship between perception and memory. He rejects the notion of documentary portraiture; instead of depicting physical likeness, he illuminates subconscious aspects of the human psyche, coaxing forth manifestations of innate and repressed emotions.
While Quinn’s portraits might resemble collages, they are actually rendered by hand with oil paint, charcoal, gouache, oil stick, pastels, and gold leaf. He begins with a vision—a vague flash of a face from his past—that he feels viscerally compelled to translate into reality. To do so, he collects images from fashion magazines, newspapers, advertising, and comics, reconceptualizing the snippets as purely aesthetic imagery before methodically redrawing and repainting each one. In an impulse akin to the parlor game cadavre exquis, Quinn covers parts of his own composition with construction paper as he goes, so that no existing section influences the appearance of the next. Only when the work is complete does he remove the paper—revealing a visually disjointed yet psychologically unified portrait or figure whose genesis echoes the extemporaneity of human memory.
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Artist
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In Conversation
Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Troy Carter
On the evening before the opening of his first exhibition with Gagosian, in Beverly Hills, Nathaniel Mary Quinn joined Troy Carter for a conversation at LA’s Hammer Museum. They spoke about deliverance, Quinn’s new work, and what drives him to make art.
The Bigger Picture
Exalt: Youth Justice Can’t Stop
As 2020 came to a close, Nathaniel Mary Quinn spoke with Gisele Castro, executive director of exalt, a New York City nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of court-involved youth by providing a path to success through effective educational engagement. Quinn is a former educator at exalt and now serves as a member of the organization’s board.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn: In the Studio
Hear the painter describe the creation of a new work in this time-lapse documentation of his process.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn
A statement from the artist.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Anderson Cooper spoke with the artist at his Brooklyn studio about his childhood and the visionary nature of his art.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2019
The Fall 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail from Sinking (2019) by Nathaniel Mary Quinn on its cover.
News
Artist Spotlight
Nathaniel Mary Quinn
January 27–February 2, 2021
In his composite portraits derived from sources both personal and found, Nathaniel Mary Quinn probes the relationship between visual memory and perception. Fragments of images taken from online sources, fashion magazines, and family photographs come together to form hybrid faces and figures that are at once Dadaesque and adamantly realist, evoking the intimacy and intensity of a face-to-face encounter.
Photo: Eddie Lee
Tour
Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Hollow and Cut
Saturday, September 14, 2019, 1pm
Gagosian, Beverly Hills
Gagosian director Ashley Stewart will lead a tour of the exhibition Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Hollow and Cut at Gagosian, Beverly Hills. The show features new composite portraits by the artist that explore the relationship between perception and memory. The paintings and works on paper probe deeply embedded experiences and emotions that are not often discussed in public by illuminating the subconscious aspects of the human psyche. To attend the free event, RSVP to bhtours@gagosian.com. Space is limited.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, How Come Not Me, 2019 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn