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Adjacent To Life, presents New York (and Portugal) 2024 by Nathan Stapley.
At ground level the pedestrian becomes iconic.
Nathan Stapley’s paintings are created on site, painted en plein air with his compact gouache kit. He is an observer and an inhabitant of the world he paints.
Stapley presents familiar scenes: the corner bodega, the neighborhood dog run, the local wateringhole, a distant glimpse of the skyline. As New Yorkers, these become the iconic scenes of our lived experience.
Always zeroing in on the narrowest of value changes to capture light’s evanescent effects, Stapley records his perceptual experience. This fidelity to perception is the undergirding subject of the paintings and the source of their familiarity, nostalgia and power.
The interpretation of light into a comprehensible understanding of what constitutes the world is an act of unifying commonality. This is the action of the painter and of the viewer of the painting – and of our pedestrian selves in ostensibly mundane moments – like stepping into the corner bodega, or taking in the sun.
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New York (and Portugal) 2024 is on view through December 13, 2024 at the Adjacent To Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City). Artist's reception: Saturday, November 16, 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
Posted by Mark Roth at November 16, 2024 10:56 AM