Gagosian Art Gallery Opening of Nathaniel Mary Quinn "Hollow and Cut" September 11, 2019 by Rachel Ganz

The opening reception was Wednesday September 11, 2019 at Gagosian Beverly Hills, 456 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills. Nathaniel Mary Quinn's portraits are very unique in technique and imagery

At first glance his paintings appear to be collages, but after you examine closely you see that the artist has hand painted with pastels, oil sticks, gold leaf, charcoal and oil to create a painting that literally looks like a collage. Quinn stockpiles illustrations from numerous newspapers, fashion magazines comic books, clothing catalogues, advertising logos, before he fastidiously repaints them

The security at this art show had to constantly ask guests to remove their faces from too close proximity from artwork to prevent any damage.

Artist Quinn's portraits are filled with gnarled and distorted faces... that are simultaneously provocative, eerie and reveal the rawness of emotion and vulnerability. He cuts through, and exposes his traumatic pain both real and illusionary from his past to present, whether transitory or unchanging.

My favorite artwork is "Above and Below, 2019", black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel on Coventry Vellum Paper and is 60'' by 44" inches.

This intriguing figure looked like Stars Wars Chewbacca's sibling with fur patches everywhere!

This was Nathaniel Mary Quinn's first exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery and runs through October 19, 2019. Quinn was born in Chicago, where he grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes on the South Side. In his ninth grade of high school, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Culver Military Academy in Indiana. In 2014 he held his first solo show at Pace Gallery in London.

During the fall of 2018, Quinn's work was included in a group show at The Drawing Center. Quinn's first solo museum exhibition, This Is Life, was presented at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin, from December 2018 to March 2019.

His work is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2019, Quinn became represented by Gagosian.