Temporarium

Nathan Redwood

April 3 - June 26, 2021

CMay gallery proudly presents six large canvases and seven smaller works on paper by painter Nathan Redwood in Temporarium, his first solo exhibition at the gallery. This stunning show is kaleidoscopic in its variety and startling in its impact. It presents yet more evidence of the talent, power and wit of this highly original American artist. Created in this challenging chapter of our recent history, Redwood’s electrifying new work reflects the deep anxiety, stress, and fear of our times and yet explodes with hope and exhilaration.

Nobody paints like Nathan Redwood. His style is utterly unique. When he burst on the scene over 15 years ago artists, collectors and critics alike marveled at his distinctive approach to his practice. In the intervening years he has continued to expand his technical repertoire, amassing an impressive collection of works.

When you stand in front of a Redwood painting, you are immediately struck by his dazzling skill and bold, assured use of color. His surfaces swim with brushstrokes so liquid that the paint appears to have not yet dried. He has devised painterly techniques that even practiced artists cannot duplicate (or even figure out) and combines his colors with vibrant originality.

Then there is Redwood’s visual storytelling. Though his paintings dally with abstraction, they always have a story to tell. His narratives teem with mythic and modern references and riff on his voluminous knowledge of art history. The stories can be sensuous, troubling, or humorous, but they are teasingly elusive. In his crowded, complex compositions, it sometimes takes a moment to make out the figures or to track their interactions. He often constructs them out of unlikely props: in his painting “The Room,” a shovel becomes a leg, a birdcage becomes a torso, horseshoes on a stake become a ribcage and a spine. Redwood revels in this game-playing, but it’s not just mischief: his visual games tell stories both dark and lyrical, often within the four edges of a single painting.

The exhibition’s smaller works are Redwood portraits, exuberant acrylics on paper, each a colorful character study that shows off his theatrical side. The same playfulness is here, with the faces sometimes emerging from gorgeous smears of paint or from the chaotic assemblage of mismatched objects. Look closely: there’s a cigar-smoking clown, a French bargeman, a shocked mademoiselle.

Redwood grew up in the American southwest and the influence of his roots is benign and expansive.   In monumental paintings like “Better Man”, his settings are otherworldly southwestern landscapes bathed in golden light, casting long shadows that recall the mysteries of De Chirico, haunting and starkly beautiful.  Redwood’s figures act out their enigmatic passion plays in such a world, inviting us to contemplate their mysteries.  It is a rare artist who can create such drama.

In 2018-2019, Redwood's most recent one-person exhibitions were featured at DENK Gallery in Los Angeles. He has held one-person exhibitions at Michael Kohn Gallery, CA, Los Angeles ,Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Carl Berg Projects, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Caren Golden Fine Art, New York, NY, JAUS Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Gallery 40000, Chicago, IL, and Electric Works, San Francisco, CA, among others. He is in the permanent collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, Plancius Collection, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and The Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL.

Selected Works

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