Nathaniel Mary Quinn Walks the Line Between Hope and Fear in New Gagosian Show
Inspired by Alice Walker’s debut novel.
Summary
- Nathaniel Mary Quinn has opened his fifth solo exhibition, ECHOES FORM COPELAND at Gagosian
- Now on view through October 25 and the gallery’s West 24th Street outpost, Quinn’s latest body for work explores ideas of self-realization, hope and transformation through the lens of Alice Walker’s The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)
In ECHOES FROM COPELAND, his fifth Gagosian solo, acclaimed American artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn alchemizes fear and loss into a new, biting body of work. Culling creative influence from the literary force of Alice Walker and figurative abstraction à la Francis Bacon, Quinn delivers ardent introspection through his portraits — sublimely fragmented and fractured, but nevertheless, whole.
Drawing on Walker’s seminal debut, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), the showcase channels ideas of trauma, transformation, hope and redemption into deeply expressive portraiture, near rupturing before our eyes. Blooms of oil paint, pastel and gouache serve as a fitting language for the psychological complex at hand: a crossroads between Quinn’s embark on ambition and Bacon’s anxious existentialism. Though each composite, mangled and fleshy, is graced by an iridescent sense of hope and emotional honesty above all.
The exhibition also marks a new, compositional direction for the artist. With brushes, palette knives and paper towels in-hand, this body work opens up new conceptual and physical terrain, positioning his characters in atmospheres thick with tension. From expanses of nature to liminal interiors and urban backdrops, Quinn brings the inside out, not only laying bare the context of his characters, but all that resides within.
ECHOES FROM COPELAND is now on view at Gagosian’s West 24th Street gallery through October 25.
Gagosian West 24th Street
541 West 24th Street,
New York, NY 10011, USA
