NATHANIEL ROBINSON
The New York Times describes Nathaniel Robinson as a “remarkably inventive sculptor [making] technically impressive, philosophically provocative works that play in the gap between perception and cognition — between what you see and what you understand.” Robinson's wizard-like simulations of real-life objects are derived from utilitarian items, relieved from any branding or specificity in design. Using ingenious handbuilding methods and working from handmade molds, Robinson's fiberglass-reinforced gypsum cement sculptures are scaled up much larger than life and physically manipulated into distortion. While primarily known as a sculptor, Robinson's new paintings merge realism with abstraction, using geometric forms to suggest urban or natural landscapes and environments.
Acting less like an objective record than an evocation of fleeting views captured while traveling by train to Manhattan from his home in Brewster, New York, "the artist elevates the prosaic trackside acreage that clutters the periphery of our urban areas." In a review of his first painting exhibition in 2019, Michelle Grabner continues to write, "Robinson withholds the details that make things unremarkable and exaggerates the abstract qualities that build a compelling image...as with his sculptures, we find ourselves taking a second look at what is in plain sight." Executed with a minimal, pared-down style and painted in muted, simple colors, Robinson's elegant paintings and crafted objects express a deep ambivalence toward the limits of human perception and function as a metaphor for the ambiguous experiences of everyday life.
Nathaniel Robinson (b. 1980, Providence, RI) received his BA from Amherst College in 2002 and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005. Robinson has held solo exhibitions at Magenta Plains, New York, NY; Feature, Inc., New York, NY; Devening Projects, Chicago, IL; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL. Robinson has also been included in group exhibitions at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York, NY; White Columns, New York, NY; Martos, New York, NY; Thomas Park Gallery in New York, NY; Maerzgalerie, Leipzig; dok25a, Dusseldorf; and TCB art inc, Melbourne. Robinson is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts & Letters 2019 Art Purchase Award and his work has been written about in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Artforum, and Art in America. Robinson lives and works in Brewster, NY.