Joshua Nathanson
Region: Pacific Coast
My paintings begin as plein air drawings I make in public sites
of leisure and ritual, such as malls, beaches, and cemeteries. I
exaggerate the figures and landscapes I see and supplement
them with imagined, often humorous forms to convey the
frenzied and saturated experience of aesthetic reception in
our present moment. Evoking the illuminated space of the now
omnipresent screen, my paintings insist on a playful freneticism
as well as a flat and graphic quality that acknowledges the
role of digital technologies and media in the production and
conception of my imagery. However, my work remains heavily
influenced by nineteenth-century art-historical movements
such as impressionism, which explore the relationship of vision
and modern experience through painterly representation. My
paintings similarly prioritize the act of perception and explore
the relationship of movement, color, and light to the emotional
and psychical conditions of contemporary life—from anxiety and
alienation to equilibrium and transcendence.