Menu

Nathaniel Mary Quinn

Hollow and Cut

September 11–October 19, 2019
Beverly Hills

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane

Works Exhibited

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, C’mo’ and Walk with Me, 2019 Charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, and oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper, 50 × 38 inches (127 × 96.5 cm)© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, C’mo’ and Walk with Me, 2019

Charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, and oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper, 50 × 38 inches (127 × 96.5 cm)
© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, How Come Not Me, 2019 Charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, and oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper, 16 × 13 inches (40.6 × 33 cm)© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, How Come Not Me, 2019

Charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, and oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper, 16 × 13 inches (40.6 × 33 cm)
© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Hiding In Plain Discomfort, 2019 Charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, and oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper, 16 × 13 inches (40.6 × 33 cm)© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Hiding In Plain Discomfort, 2019

Charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, and oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper, 16 × 13 inches (40.6 × 33 cm)
© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Jekyll and Hyde, 2019 Oil paint, paint stick, gouache, and soft pastel on linen canvas, in 2 parts, overall: 14 × 22 inches (35.6 × 55.9 cm)© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Jekyll and Hyde, 2019

Oil paint, paint stick, gouache, and soft pastel on linen canvas, in 2 parts, overall: 14 × 22 inches (35.6 × 55.9 cm)
© Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever

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.

Read more

News

Photo: Eddie Lee

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

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, How Come Not Me, 2019 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn

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