Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s affecting mixed-media portraits recently returned in the show "Always Felt, Rarely Seen" at Almine Rech in Brussels. As with past work (Quinn was last featured on HiFructose.com here), there's a collage-like look to the work, though all aspects are sourced through materials at the artist's hands. Yet, as the gallery says, there’s been a more personal evolution in recent work.
At first glance, Nathaniel Mary Quinn's works may appear as collages. But the Chicago-raised artist’s stirring portraits are rendered in charcoal, oil-paint, paint-stick, gouache and oil pastel by his own hands, an alchemistic process that is both meticulous and intuitive. Much of his work pulls from his own experiences, composite memories that mix bright pop cultural references and the bleakness found in his subjects.