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Nathaniel Mary Quinn's sophisticated paintings that could be mistaken for collage

The paintings of Chicago-born artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn blend sophisticated painting and drawing techniques to achieve the appearance of collage. Considered by the artist as "two-dimensional sculptures", his portraiture is realised from photography, without any preliminary sketches, and frequently represents people and figures from his childhood and his close circle.

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Nathaniel Mary Quinn portrait painting of a figure wearing ornate pearl-rimmed goggles with black lenses, a red cross on the forehead, colourful floral garment, and purple scarf, rendered in mixed painting and drawing techniques

His attempt to duplicate a visual physicality on the surface of the canvas externalises the world of human beings, exploring the complexity and the wide spectrum of the human condition.

Quinn has been the subject of solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Torino, London and New York. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Taubman Museum of Art, Virginia; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Hall Art Foundation, New York; and the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, among others. Until February 2019, his work is part of the group exhibition entitled ‘Opacity’, at The Drawing Center in New York.

You can also see new ambitious works on canvas as well as works on paper at Nathaniel Mary Quinn, an exhibition at the Almine Rech Brussels gallery in Brussels from 14 March until 10 April 2019. Discover more: artsy.net.

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