Rob Nadeau

Region: Northeast

I make paintings that attempt to choreograph a collision between the orchestrated and the unintended. The inspiration for my work comes from the visual culture and commercial residue that surrounds us in our everyday lives; the detritus, refuse and collapsed remnants of our consumerist society. I incorporate this attitude or feeling in the work, using a variety of mark making approaches and materials to create the images while drawing on my passion for the act of painting and paint itself. I employ a jury rigged aesthetic approach with an emphasis on process and materiality, a conscious disregard for resolution or "finish" in the traditional sense, a slight hint of humor, and a flirtation with near constant failure. It is a scumbled and infected formalism, a congress of flotsam, teetering on the brink of self-destruction. For me it is about taking chances, engaging in a desperate, yet somehow casual, search for meaning.

Rob Nadeau (b. 1974, Rochester, NY) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from Brown University. Solo shows include LFL/Zach Feuer Gallery, NY; Mixed Greens, NY; Galerie Markus Winter, Berlin, Germany; and Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT. Nadeau has been included in numerous group shows both nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant; a residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown; and a residency at Yaddo.