About
Each of us is a cacophony of experience. Not just a seamless self.
—Nathaniel Mary Quinn
In his collage-like 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 neo-Dada and adamantly realist, evoking the intimacy and intensity of a face-to-face encounter.
Quinn’s passion for drawing began at a young age, while he was growing up on the South Side of Chicago. In ninth grade, he received a scholarship to attend Culver Academies boarding school in Indiana—but a month after arriving at the school, Quinn received news from his father that his mother had suddenly passed away. He returned to Chicago for Thanksgiving the following month, only to find that the rest of his family—his father and brothers—had abandoned his childhood home without a trace. This jarring experience further propelled Quinn’s art, and he decided to commit himself to his education, adding his mother’s name, Mary, to his name so that she would appear on all of his degrees. He received a BA in art and psychology from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 2000, and an MFA from New York University in 2002.
After completing his MFA, Quinn moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he continued to paint while working as a teacher for at-risk youth. In 2013 he had a breakthrough, developing a new technique that would draw wide attention to his work. The mother of one of his students invited Quinn to show five works in an art salon that she was hosting in her home. On the day of the opening, however, he only had four works finished. Improvising, he began to paint a blurred memory of his past, piecing together fragments of images from his subconscious. When he stepped back, he recognized the mouth of his brother Charles.
Photo: Kyle Dorosz
#NathanielMaryQuinn
Exhibitions
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.
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.
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.
Visions of the Self: Jenny Saville on Rembrandt
Jenny Saville reveals the process behind her new self-portrait, painted in response to Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles.
Fairs, Events & Announcements
Support
Art for a Safe and Healthy California
Presented by Jane Fonda, Gagosian, and Christie’s
Art for a Safe and Healthy California is a benefit exhibition and auction presented by Jane Fonda, Gagosian, and Christie’s to support Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California. Artworks donated by artists including Charles Gaines, Frank Gehry, Alex Israel, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Catherine Opie, Christina Quarles, Ed Ruscha, Jonas Wood, among others, will be sold to help the coalition of voters campaigning to stop oil companies attempting to repeal Governor Gavin Newsom’s SB1137 on the November ballot. The bill provides safe setbacks from oil wells for homes, parks, schools, and playgrounds, as well as requirements to make already pumping wells safer.
The benefit launches on April 9 with a ticketed fundraiser in Beverly Hills hosted by Jane Fonda, Larry Gagosian, Aileen Getty, and Susan and Mark Buell, with cohosts Edythe Broad, Frank Gehry, Wendy and Eric Schmidt, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, and Sean Penn. Highlighted artworks will be on view. A selection of works will be auctioned in the Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale during their marquee sale week in May, while another group of works will be presented for sale in an exhibition in summer 2024 at the Beverly Hills gallery.
Ed Ruscha, UPS DOWNS, 2023 © Ed Ruscha. Photo: Brica Wilcox
Art Fair
Art Basel Hong Kong 2024
March 27–30, 2024
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com
Gagosian is participating in Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 with a selection of works by international contemporary artists. The works on view, which embrace a dizzying variety of subjects and approaches, see the participating artists identify fresh ways to disrupt established histories of abstraction and figuration, and instill sculptural and painterly representations of the natural world with complex cultural significance.
Sarah Sze, Turning and Turning, 2024 © Sarah Sze. Photo: Maris Hutchinson
Lecture
New York Studio School Evening Lecture Series
Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Work Ethic and Faith
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 6:30pm
New York Studio School
nyss.org
Nathaniel Mary Quinn will be a guest speaker at the New York Studio School as part of their Evening Lecture Series, a platform for diverse perspectives and spirited conversations among artists, scholars, students, and the general public. The in-person and online event is free to attend and will include a question-and-answer session.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Ike Edeani
Museum Exhibitions
On View
The Time Is Always Now
Artists Reframe the Black Figure
Through May 19, 2024
National Portrait Gallery, London
www.npg.org.uk
The Time Is Always Now showcases the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora and highlights their use of figures to illuminate the richness and complexity of Black life. The exhibition examines both the presence and the absence of Black figures in Western art history and the social, psychological, and cultural contexts in which they were produced. Work by Titus Kaphar and Nathaniel Mary Quinn is included.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Father Stretch My Hands, 2021 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever
On View
Effetto Notte
Nuovo Realismo Americano
Through July 14, 2024
Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome
barberinicorsini.org
This exhibition’s title was borrowed from a work by Lorna Simpson, Day for Night (2018), which translates to Effetto Notte in Italian. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Flaminia Gennari Santori in collaboration with the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, the exhibition features more than 150 artworks from the collection of Tony and Elham Salamé that interrogate the meanings and functions of figuration in contemporary art and address questions around the notion of realism and the representation of truth in painting. Work by Derrick Adams, Louise Bonnet, Maurizio Cattelan, Urs Fischer, Theaster Gates, Duane Hanson, Rick Lowe, Richard Prince, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Sterling Ruby, Anna Weyant, Stanley Whitney, and Christopher Wool is included.
Richard Prince, Untitled, 2015, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut © Richard Prince
On View
Revolutions
Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960
Through April 20, 2025
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
hirshhorn.si.edu
Revolutions is a major survey of 270 artworks by 126 artists from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s permanent collection. Celebrating the museum’s fiftieth anniversary, the exhibition aims to capture the shifting cultural landscapes of a century defined by new currents in science and philosophy and ever-increasing mechanization. Shown alongside these historic works are contributions from nineteen contemporary artists whose practices demonstrate how many revolutionary ideas from a hundred years ago remain critical today. Work by Francis Bacon, Amoako Boafo, Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Rick Lowe, Sally Mann, Man Ray, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, and Cy Twombly is included.
Rick Lowe, Fire #4: This Time Athens, 2023, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Rick Lowe Studio
Closed
El eco de Picasso
October 2, 2023–March 30, 2024
Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain
museopicassomalaga.org
Organized as part of Picasso Celebration 1973–2023, a series of international exhibitions and events commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, The Echo of Picasso focuses on his influence on twentieth-century art. The exhibition places Picasso’s practice in dialogue with work by more than fifty artists, including Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Willem de Kooning, Thomas Houseago, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Richard Prince, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Cy Twombly, Tom Wesselmann, and Franz West.
Installation view, El eco de Picasso, Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain, October 2, 2023–March 30, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Rebecca Warren, © Richard Prince. Photo: Pablo Asenjo, courtesy Museo Picasso Málaga
Press
« Dessiner m’a littéralement sauvé la vie. » Les âmes fragmentées de Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Connaissance des Arts
July 21, 2023
Online
PDF
Nathaniel Mary Quinn Untangles Truth, Memory, and Perception at Gagosian Paris by Laurent Moisi
Whitewall
July 13, 2023
Online
PDF
Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Not Far From Home; Still Far Away by Mary Hrbacek
Whitehot Magazine
October 27, 2021
Online
PDF
Exquisite Corpse: A Conversation with Nathaniel Mary Quinn by Evan Pricco
Juxtapoz
October 13, 2020
Online
PDF
Nathaniel Mary Quinn at Gagosian Beverly Hills by Shana Nys Dambrot
LA Weekly
September 24, 2019
Online
PDF
Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s First Show at Gagosian Is Full of Psychologically Intense Collage Portraits—See Them Here by Caroline Goldstein
Artnet
September 13, 2019
Online
PDF