Nathaniel Mary Quinn. On That Faithful Day

About

Quinn experiences visions that he translates into paintings, most of which get titled after people he has encountered, first in the rough South Side of Chicago where he was born and later abandoned by his family, followed by time in an elite boarding school where he took refuge in education, perhaps realizing how much he had learned from life in the projects, growing up fast, yet how much more he needed to know to survive in his changing circumstances - his portraits are markers of his capacity for empathy.

Quinn admits his survival is a result of his education, including his MFA from NYU, but the spark of survival was born with him and he has been aware of it as have most who have known him. Mary's Boy, Golf Mound, and Fifteen (all works 2017) reveal a series of disjointed self-portraits, complex with contradictions - the man boy dichotomy; both male and female; mixed racial attributes; hopeful eyes, brooding mouth, even unsure brow. Irrespective, these contradictions reflect that spark (with sumptuous gilding within the supple skin tones). Quinn uses the energy and character of the individual to project the rich spectrum of humanity in his portraits.

Truth can often be harsh. Quinn's skillful technique navigates the space between photography and painting. He paints from fragments of photographs culled from fashion and culture magazines and embodies a collage aesthetic at the interception between painting and photography. Quinn's skill is such that his delicate hand records his visions as translated through media fragments, refracting the summation of the lives and experiences of those he portrays to immerse the viewer into his world. Quinn's works emerge from and are the start of many inspiring observations.

-Kathleen Madden