New Press: NY ARTS

A feature on my work at NY Arts Magazine.

Art's New View: The 12 best Colorado artists 35 and under @ the Denver Post

I was one of the 12 artists featured in the Denver Post's "12 best artists under 35" yesterday. Read the list here. Also, the blog iheartphotograph recently featured one of my works.

Mention in April Art Forum!

As part of the review of Mamma Andersson at the Aspen Art Museum;

..."Andersson's distinctive voice, anchored in dark, Bergmanesque sensibility of her native Scandinavia, perhaps holds a special resonance for Colorado, because of the parallels between its topography and that of Sweden. Certainly, some of the state's artists, such as Nathan Abels of Denver, tread similar physical and emotional landscapes in their work. Abel's painting 'Kairos', 2010, for example, offers a stark enigmatic view of a lonely road cutting through an icy landscape that looks both real and alien."

Kyle MacMillan, Art Forum, April 2011, p. 223

Rule Gallery - Editor's Choice for Top of the Town 2010

In the current (July) issue of 5280 magazine, the Editor's Choice for "Top of the Town" Art gallery went to Rule. They write,

"Ask 100 people for their favorite art gallery, and you'll get 100 different answers. But if you enjoy art for its sheer simplicity, you won't be disappointed at Rule. Specializing in minimalist work, this gallery on Broadway showcases—at most—two dozen pieces of contemporary art, both local and national, every six weeks. Pieces include everything from midscale installations to photo imagery to paintings. Take a late-afternoon lunch along the SoBo corridor, follow it up with a visit to Rule, and get lost in the edgy visions of artists like Pard Morrison and Nathan Abels."

Mention on Lost at E Minor

Lost at E Minor posted my work recently and wrote,

"Denver-based Nathan Abels‘ paintings deal with the matter-of-course destruction humans wreak on the environment. Abels, like many other artists and photographers of late, captures the new, self-reflexive sense of the sublime we now experience with the uncontrollable power we now have over our world."

Recent press

Michael Paglia from the Denver Westword reviewed the "Stark" show at Foothills Art Center, saying of my work;

"the exhibit begins with some remarkable, barely-there drawings by Nathan Abels. 'City Park Morning' is so faint, it takes a moment or two to come into focus; it's almost as if Abels has simply exhaled graphite. An apparition-like video of his exudes a similar faintness."

I was also featured on the art-blog My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses and some tumblr blogs: the locative case, sunday afternoon rain, and drawing architecture.

Update: Art ltd.

The podcast I did last night was fun. I hope you enjoyed listening to it. Speaking of press, George Melrod of Art ltd. mentioned my wildfire painting in his essay, “Eden is Burning” from the March/April 2010 issue, writing;

Denver artist Nathan Abels paints cryptic scenes deconstructing the interstices of natural and human habitation, where mysterious wilderness intersects with quotidian society. Hints of danger abound…

The art of enigma

Kyle MacMillan of the Denver Post reviewed my current exhibition this morning -you can read it here.

Examiner: Best art exhibition for February 2010: Nathan Abels at RULE Gallery

Read the article here.

Anthony Farfalla of Examiner dot com writes;

"Nathan Abels’ latest work depicts a solemn and dark figment of nature. The Denver painter's solo show, appropriately titled ‘Natural Causes,’ is a collection of ghostly paintings exploring various landscapes and their inhabitants. Each painting captures a moment of an on-going event that seems to play forward in the viewer’s mind. Intimate portrayals of wildlife and desperate cityscapes compile a beautiful showing.

Of the collection, the piece ‘Lost to Sight,’ seems to capture the talent and creativity of Abels’ work. The painting depicts a startling scene as a mountain lion approaches a young deer. Deep within the woods, the images is set in a fantastic night light, creating a dark sense of solitude.

The show runs through March at RULE Gallery (227 North Broadway, Denver). In conjunction with the exhibit, Nathan Abels has also curated a small group show including the work of Alan Kitchen, Mindy Bray, Eric Lo Presti, Alexander Binder, Jason Stopa, and Yoshitomo Saito."

Natural Causes pdf catalog

Natural Causes pdf Catalog (click to download pdf)

• The 20 page pdf catalog includes installation images, images of my work, and images of the works in the curated show. The curated group show is made up of site-specific work by Mindy Bray, paintings from New York artists Jason Stopa and Eric LoPresti, photographs by German photographer Alexander Binder, works on paper by Alan Kitchen, and new bronze work by Yoshitomo Saito.
• Also included is a curatorial statement by me, and an introductory essay by Christopher Reiger, and excerpts from the Denver Post article reviewing the curated show.

Update

The opening on Friday was a well-attended success. Thanks to everyone who came out. There was a article in Sunday's Denver Post about the part of the exhibition that I curated in which Kyle MacMillan wrote that it was a "welcome burst of freshness" and that I had chosen six artists "who share [my] meticulous attention to detail and fascination with the less obvious, sometimes indistinct aspects of the world around [me]."

New Print on the Knack

Knack studios posted my new print and a couple of other works on their blog today. Check out all the other great places my print has shown up here (eight more places!).

EDIT: Things magazine also put up a link to my work this week as well as Design Crisis.

New Print Really Gaining Momentum

OMG Posters

Postcards from Colorado

Automatism

Happy Mundane

The Scoop

Twentytwo blog

Also : Design Milk , Design for Mankind; This Week in Inspiration

There are already a few less available than when I posted the print on Monday. You can get your own here.

New Press

Nathan Abels: Expatriate

By Dan Swartz

Fort Wayne Reader

2009-02-24

Employing the most of the unnoticed everyday icons of life through the eyes of a Midwesterner, visual artist Nathan Abels has created a very strong body of art, and gained great levels of success. Abels, a Fort Wayne native and University of Saint Francis BA graduate, earned an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2005 and is currently living in Denver, Colorado, represented there by Rule Gallery. Rule Gallery is a well-established contemporary art gallery, which shows national and emerging regional artists. While very much enjoying his relationship with Rule gallery, Abels would also like to expand his market to galleries outside of Colorado, and in addition to this Abels plans on increasing the scale of his works, while also doing more works on paper.

“My work is primarily landscape-based representational painting, mostly having to do with the human habitat,” Abels says. “Since moving to Denver two years ago I did some work as an aerial survey photographer that crept into my works about the suburban landscape. My most recent show Stills took place at the Rule Gallery here in Denver and just closed. This show consisted of nine works that were less directly suburban-based and more diverse visually and with added atmosphere.

Nathan Abels’ work has evolved since finishing graduate school, but has stayed very true to the conceptual and historical threads of landscape paintings, post-neo-expressionist painting, and minimalism (some of his favorite artists are Otis Redding, Edward Hopper, Toba Kedoori, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Vija Celmins). The themes have consistently been space and place related. Open spaces, quiet places, and a sense of uneasiness and mysterious origins permeate his images, be they of houses based off of aerial photographs, or a lone burning barrel at night. When asked about the quietness of his images, Abels said, “Everything else is noisy enough. I suppose my work acts as some kind of balance. In a lot of ways I think I can make work more real or honest when it is quieter.”

While each image tends to lack an obvious narrative, the work, especially when viewed en masse creates a very palpable, almost seething sense of loneliness, folly, and wonder. I tend to think of Abels’ work as being very complicated temporally. His paintings especially evoke 19th century Whistler-like images, early 20th century Regionalists like Grant Wood and Andrew Wyeth, and share many commonalities with low and high millennial artists like Ross Bleckner (including the beautiful piece entitled “Without Haste, But Without Rest”), Luc Tuymans, and others.

“Somnambulism”, another very Ross Bleckner-esque, smart, smoky, virtuoso painting that is modestly sized, and tightly cropped. The image is of a smokestack, which can be seen through the links of a chain fence. “Somnambulism” means sleepwalking and the image like much of Abels’ work is based on an initial photograph, this one being a Polaroid taken by a friend of his. “It had all the things I liked in it – repetition, muted colors, environmental concerns (with the smokestack), and contrasts of organic and man-made forms (there is a faint tree branch at the top – easier seen in person).” This painting differs from much of Abel’s older work, which relied much more on a refined sense and use of color, although still muted. The intense cropping places the image, conceptually, in a photographic context and creates a sense of voyeurism. The viewer of “Somnambulism” takes on the more literal role of the viewer in the image, giving this painting much more depth and character than the formally simple image allows alone.
"Nothing is Fair or Good Alone" is another Abels painting representative of his newer work with a darker palette complimenting his natural creation of spacious environments. “The painting is of a small barrel with a fire in it. I was thinking of my Grandparents who used to burn a lot of leaves in barrels out in Leo and it also reminded me of cookouts we used to have in Savannah. I think the title can refer to the positive and negative effects that any action may have in relation to other actions or inactions. For example, wildfires are a constant threat in the arid climate here in Colorado– but fire is the only way some kinds of pine trees can regenerate.”

“Untitled”, a great example of Abels’ ability to reproduce images, nearly mechanically, is a work of graphite on paper. This is one of many images of homes entitled “Untitled” relaying even further the monotony of suburban sprawl that has taken a stranglehold over most major cities in the United States. Through these images, and upon further inspection, many of his paintings, Abels has mastered the vignette, giving a faintly bordered glimpse of what is sure to be a sea of grayish blue and beige boxes being constructed throughout the Colorado landscape. Abels’ ability to replicate such exacting details, and his access to aerial views through his job create these almost toy box looking subdivisions, all ignorant of each other, while being nearly identical.

Because of Nathan Abels’ extraordinary talent and good business head, his work is already part of prominent collections throughout the United States, including New York City, and his work has been seen in numerous contemporary art galleries and art fairs. At 28 years of age, Abels’ is right on track to have a very nice career, being that a general rule of thumb is “representation at 30, museums by 40, making money in your 50’s, and retrospectives soon after”. Hopefully Fort Wayne will be lucky enough to see more of Nathan Abels work in the future, and we can revel in the gorgeous works of one of our expatriate artists.

You can find more images and information on Nathan Abels by visiting Rule Gallery (www.rulegallery.com), or the artist’s personal website (www.nathanabels.com).

I've been Booooooomed!

A great art/design/music/etc site put up some of my drawing today. Check it out! They update constantly at Booooooom! so it's definitely worth repeated visits.

"Stills" in the Denver Post

I have copied my new review into this blog - fully illustrated, in case you unaware of some of his references:

Nathan Abels' own stamp

Haunting imagery permeates young painter's exhibit at Rule Gallery

By Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic

Posted: 01/16/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

Nathan Abels, an Indiana native who moved to Denver in 2007, is spotlighted in his first solo exhibition at the Rule Gallery. Among the 12 works on view is
"Central City," 2008, acrylic on panel, 24 by 36 inches.

The shadowy silhouette of a building and the glow of a dozen or so windows are all that can be seen through the fog in Alex Katz's hushed nighttime view of New York City, "New Year's Eve" (1990).

Borrowing some of the innovative approaches he employs in his more widely known portraits, Katz merges representation and abstraction in the oil on canvas, a highlight of Denver Art Museum's collection of modern and contemporary art.

Alex Katz, "New Year's Eve"

Nathan Abels, a highly promising 28-year-old artist who moved to Denver in 2007, takes up

where Katz left off in "Stills," a striking new group of paintings on view through Jan. 31 at the Rule Gallery.

Indeed, "Not Lightness, But Darkness Visible," a 16-by- 20-inch acrylic on canvas with three glowing windows in an invisible building piercing an otherwise unbroken blackness, can be seen as a direct echo of Katz's painting.

Nathan Abels, "Not Lightness, But Darkness Visible"

These dozen peopleless works, which can be categorized loosely as land- and cityscapes, all exude a sense of emotional detachment and mystery while never seeming distant or cold.

A few of these pieces, such as "A Lot of Little Rain," even possess a gently romantic quality. In the gray, monochromatic 16-by-20-inch oil and acrylic on canvas, the faint, dreamlike outlines of pine trees and glow of rain drops can barely be seen.

Nathan Abels, "A Lot of Little Rain"

Abels, an Indiana native with a master's degree from the Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design, is clearly aware of the many styles and movements that have rocked the art world in recent decades. Like Katz, he fuses abstraction and representation, but the younger artist injects his works with a subtle conceptual edge at the same time.

All this gives his paintings a decidedly contemporary feel. He can be counted as part of a recent surge of painters who are reincorporating narrative into their works, though his story lines are more remote and his style considerably more nuanced than many of his peers.

While speaking to the present, he also conjures the past. It's

Echoes of Edward Hopper can be seen in Nathan Abels' "There, There," 2008, acrylic on panel, 24 by 36 inches. (Rule Gallery)

nearly impossible not to look at many of these pieces, especially the nocturnes, and not think of precedents in American art history, such as the shrouded landscapes of Ralph Blakelock at the turn of the last century.

Ralph Blakelock, Moonlight, 1885

"There, There" (2008), a spare, straight-on view of a lonely house with a barren tree in front, is reminscent of similar forlorn compositions by Edward Hopper, such as "House By the Railroad" (1925) or "Ryder's House" (1933).

Edward Hopper. (American, 1882-1967). House by the Railroad. 1925. Oil on canvas, 24 x 29"

Rather than full-on depictions, many of Abel's compositions offer little more than a glimmer, a glimpse, an enigmatic hint at something larger — an isolated fire in "Nothing Is Fair or Good Alone," a section of chain-link fence in "Somnambulism."

In others, though, the subject matter is evident. The exhibition's largest selection by far — "Overpass," a 3-by-8-foot acrylic on panel, depicts a prototypical expressway interchange.

Nathan Abels, "Overpass"

But in Abels' hands, even this recognizable scene remains elusive and distant. Other painters have taken on similar imagery, but he puts his distinctive stamp on it, giving this expansive work a haunting presence.

Here and elsewhere in the show, the young artist successfully marries concept with craft, matching his distinctive creative vision with deft, well-honed paint-handling skills.

"Stills" demonstrates again that gallery owner Robin Rule's eye for talent remains keen. Abels possesses all the ingredients necessary for a significant artistic career.

Kyle MacMillan

Article on Denverpost.com here

Rocky Mountain News Review / Press

Mary Chandler of the Rocky Mountain News wrote a review of the show I have with Mark Sink yesterday, saying:

"Finally, in the far back space, Rule has moved into the realm of quasi-photography, with a shift into anti-photography, in a way. "Still," a selection of acrylic-on-panel paintings by Colorado-based artist Nathan Abels, includes some of the highly representational works he does of the contemporary landscape and its built features.

But there also are grayed- or browned-out scenes - View From a Train is the major example - that add a component of abstraction to a body of work by a young artist who has an eye for where and how we live and how we perceive our surroundings.

It adds to the mystery of what, in essence, is a trip through time and the evolution of technology, and vision."

Denver Connects Review

Somehow I missed this review from November 18th on Denver Connects:

"In the back of the gallery, Nathan Abel’s Stills showcase all-to-real scenes of lonely office buildlings, a hushed house, and blank, white trucks lined up on a street. Beautifully rendered, the scenes evoke both a sense of familiarity and loneliness. Evoking the solitary sense of suburban and even urban landscapes, the paintings are haunting, comforting, and at the same time disquieting. Staring at them in the series, I was reminded of the great David Byrne film True Stories, as they both capture the ennui, dread, and strange beauty of the human landscape so perfectly."

The show was also reviewed this week in the Westword.

New Westword Press

Michael Paglia, the Westword arts writer said this of my current show at Rule; "The festivities are finished off by Stills, which comprises edgy and awkward representational paintings done by emerging Denver artist Nathan Abels. Though technically not photo-realist in style, these paintings make wonderful companions for the photos from the other two shows."

I'm not sure what he means by "awkward", but the show is still up for almost another month so you should go by Rule and decide for yourself.

Updates

I just finished updating a lot of things on my dot com -including the press links and images, the exhibition postcards, and the exhibitions section. Speaking of press - Dear Ada just posted about my new works, writing, "“I really do adore the subject matter he explores, the architecture and landscapes of modern life, all beautifully rendered and conceived. It doesn’t get much better than this as far as I’m concerned.”