Nick Naber: Cityscapes / Structures

About

OPUS Projects is pleased to present Nick Naber's second solo exhibition at OPUS Projects,Cityscapes / Structures.  An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 5, 6-8pm.​

My work borrows from the surrounding architecture of the urban landscape: corporate skyscrapers, industrial buildings, brownstones, prisons, and shipping warehouses. I focus on the extremity of their structural elements through the use of severe lines and strict repetition. Fenestrations, sculptural elements, and the severity of industrial buildings find a place in the work.

Cityscapes are built on dichotomies. Visually they rely on dark light, fluid straight edge, and positive negative. Tension is created with these contrasts. The work begins as a fine line drawing and over time is layered with watercolor. The watercolor degrades the fine line drawing with its fluidity. These characteristics collapse into one another creating richness in the works.

Structures employ severe meandering overwrought lines that engulf the paper. Forms and spaces stretch, expand, and integrate to create structural abstractions. Walls crisscross, meander, and offer countless circuitous passages. The enclosures leave the viewer imprisoned; yet the multiple layers keep the viewer adrift in drawn space.

In these series specific corporate elements are joined to unrealized paper projects for imaginary dystopic forms. The anti antiutopian nature of these architectural structures is highlighted by their scale and design, communicating a sense of unease, intense competition, and the desire for power. Through this work, I aim to reconcile my artistic process and the experience of my lived environment.