Brother-in-Law, 2016
Black charcoal, gouache, soft & oil pastel, oil paint, paint stick on Coventry Vellum Paper
12 x 12 inches, paper
16.9 x 16.9 inches, framed
Bam, 2018
Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel on Coventry Vellum paper
16 x 13 inches
Charles Re-visited, 2015
Black charcoal, soft pastel, oil pastel, paint stick, gouache on Coventry Vellum Paper
56.25 x 44 inches, framed
Class of '92, 2015
Black charcoal, soft pastel, oil pastel, paint stick, gouache on Coventry Vellum paper
40.25 x 44 inches, framed
Erica with the Pearl Earring, 2015
Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel, oil paint, paint stick, silver oil pastel on Coventry Vellum Paper
31 x 31.75 inches, framed
Junebug, 2015
Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel, oil paint, paint stick, acrylic silver leaf on Coventry Vellum paper
49 x 49 inches, framed
Buck Nasty: Player Haters Ball, 2017
Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel, acrylic gold powder on Coventry Vellum Paper
39.625 x 40 inches, framed
Uncles Dope, 2017
Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel, and paint stick on Coventry Vellum paper
29 x 22.5 inches, framed
Nathaniel Mary Quinn (b. Chicago, 1977) creates hybrid, fractured portraits on paper and linen using charcoal, gouache, pastel, paint stick, and oil paint. His works are replete with art historical references to Cubism, Surrealism, Francis Bacon, and others, yet his process is also very personal, drawing from his memories, experiences, traumas, and family history growing up in Chicago’s Robert Taylor housing project. Nathaniel Mary Quinn balances the beautiful with the grotesque, the sinister with the benevolent, capturing the complexity of human emotion in a way that is individual and also representative of the human condition.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn has exhibited at galleries and institutions internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include Half Gallery, New York; Luce Gallery, Torino, Italy; M + B Gallery, Los Angeles; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; Bunker 259 Gallery, Brooklyn; Pace Gallery, London, England; and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn, New York. He has also been featured in the group exhibitions at Artist Space, New York; The Bronx Museum of Arts; Albertz Benda, New York; Satori Gallery, New York; Susan-Inglett Gallery, New York; and Driscoll Babcock Gallery, New York; and in A Process Series | Here He Come: Black Jesus, curated by Jessamyn Fiore, Rawson Projects, New York. His work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Independent (London), AFROPUNK, the Chicago Reader, The Daily News, The New York Times, Huffington Post, and Time Out New York. He is the recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Artistic, Performance, and Fine Arts Award and a two-time winner of the National Arts Club Prize. Quinn is included in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Sheldon Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Nathaniel Mary Quinn, a native of Chicago, received his BFA from Wabash College and his MFA from New York University. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Whether you want to call it Black History Month or as Ye has suggested, Black Future Month, we’d like to take each and every day to promote the incredible work being made by Black creators from around the globe. From the legendary prose of acclaimed novelist, Toni Morrison, Lubaina Himid’s theatrical compositions, to Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s disruptive portraiture — we picked our top exhibitions by prominent and emerging Black artists to see in 2022.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn recently captivated audiences through a striking series of portraiture in “NOT FAR FROM HOME; STILL FAR AWAY,” held at the Gagosian‘s 980 Madison Avenue location.
To follow, Quinn spoke about the development of the exhibition with Amanda Hunt, director of public programs and creative practice at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The conversation probed how the artist draws on his own tragic life experiences to speak on the relationship between perception and memory.
Inspired by the recent Netflix Documentary, The Last Dance, which follows the Chicago Bulls' 1997-'98 season, journalist Cason Sharpe investigates the aesthetic and cultural legacy of Michael Jordan. Sharpe features a 2018 Nathaniel Mary Quinn portrait entitled, Jordan, and discusses its departure from the artist's signature style of Francis Bacon-esque distortions. Quinn's portrait of Jordan is painted with an "admiration that’s evident in the cartoon-like exaggeration of Jordan’s jawline and neck, with the white gleam in his eyes echoing the white of his handsome smile."
Art in America review of Soil, Seed, and Rain, Nathaniel Mary Quinn's latest exhibition at Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
A studio visit and interview with the artist on the occasion of his Gagosian Beverly Hills show, Hollow and Cut.
An interview with the artist on the occasion of his Gagosian Beverly Hills show, on view until October 19.
Quinn discusses the psychology behind his portraits in the exhibition Hollow and Cut, on view at Gagosian in Beverly Hills through October 19.
Interview between Anderson Cooper and Nathaniel Mary Quinn.
The Wall Street Journal asks Nathaniel Mary Quinn about his career and upcoming exhibition.
Review of the latest event in the Brooklyn Museum’s regular series “Breaking the Canon,” which addresses the institution’s collecting of African-American art.
Interview with the artist in light of his newest exhibition The Land at Salon 94.
Artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn's recounts his own life story.
Review of Soundtrack at M+B gallery.
