Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s Dynamic Portraiture to Exhibit at the Gagosian New York
An artist who blurs the line between perception and memory.
The Gagosian and Nathaniel Mary Quinn will relink on a new solo exhibition slated to release on September 17. “NOT FAR FROM HOME; STILL FAR AWAY” is the artist’s first presentation in the gallery’s New York location and features a collection of new paintings that exude Quinn’s dynamic collage portraiture.
Mary Quinn creates bold and striking visual fragments of his subjects — challenging the relationship between perception and memories in an aesthetic that ranges neo-Dadaism to Realism. An oeuvre that Anne Philbin, director of the HAMMER Museum, states are “perfect metaphors for the cut-and-paste world of images we live in.” Mary Quinn intricately tinkers with the Surrealist technique of Cadavre Exquis, which refers to an approach where painters would collaborate to create bizarre and innovative artworks.
The artist’s childhood certainly informs the complexity of his work. In the ninth grade, upon entering the Culver Academies boarding school, Quinn received a tragic message from his father noting that his mother had passed away. When the young artist returned to the family home a month later, his father and brothers had deserted him. Quinn would go on to add his mother’s maiden name, Mary, to the back of his name to ensure that she would appear on all his degrees and artworks. These memories — both traumatizing and joyful — seep into his work, such as the painful betrayal by an estranged relative, which has manifested in Double-Barreled Shotgun (2021).
Instead of letting the difficulties of his upbringing hinder his outlook on life, he uses it as a fire that has garnered his place in the most respected galleries and museums around the world.
“NOT FAR FROM HOME; STILL FAR AWAY” will go on view at the Gagosian New York from September 17 to October 30.
Also on view, Michael Lau’s ‘Maxx’ will return in a new solo exhibition at Woaw Gallery.
Gagosian
980 Madison Avenue,
New York 10075
