Installation view of “A Dog From Every County” at Maccarone Gallery. Photo by Tom Powel, courtesy of the Artist and Maccarone.
Greenwich Village contemporary gallery Maccarone is hosting a new Nate Lowman exhibition through the end of March. The work, a series of works on paper depicting smiley faces, is a departure for the bad boy artist, more typically known for putting bullet holes in gallery walls. According to Lowman, he’s challenging the idea of a reflexive happy emotion, and the smiley face imagery is lifted from a letter written by celebrity/criminal O.J. Simpson: “It’s this insane compulsion, like “I’m happy! I swear!” I’m not buying it. I don’t believe them.”
Maccarone Gallery
Nate Lowman “A Dog from Every County”
630 Greenwich Street, New York
February 28 – March 28, 2009
RELATED LINKS
Current Shows: Nate Lowman [Frieze Magazine]
Blasblog: The A-crowd comes out for Nate Lowman [Style File Blog]
Leo Fitzpatrick interview with Nate Lowman [Interview magazine]
Art Basel Miami Beach: Under Construction [T: The Moment]
More images, information, and video footage after the jump…
Clip from Interview magazine profile of Nate Lowman by Leo Fiztpatrick – via Interview.
“A lot of the images I use are already out there in the public or in the news. I just steal them or photograph them or repaint them, so they’ve already been talked about, already been consumed. I’m just reopening them to get at their second, third, or fourth meanings. It really comes down to language. I feel like the biggest failure of humans is miscommunication.” – Nate Lowman
Though Lowman continues to appropriate images from pop culture, “A Dog From Every County” is a more rigorous and serious example of his method, with an underlying tone of humor but a weightier set of images (tow truck parts and religious iconography in addition to the ubiquitous smiley face, which becomes more sinister in its incessant replication).
Nate Lowman "A Dog From Every County" at Maccarone Gallery
Lowman’s process embodies the collective downtown New York spirit that forms a facet of the greater contemporary art scene. At such a young age (29), he is famous: shares a studio with fellow artist-on-the-scene Dan Colen, chums with Beatrice Inn and art circuit regulars (Agathe Snow, Dash Snow, Aaron Young, Ryan McGinley, Rita Ackermann), favorite of superstar curator Neville Wakefield, and dating an Olsen. The montage of smiles in Maccarone’s latest show illustrate this sense of camaraderie, as it’s actually a compilation of doodles collected by Lowman from friends and acquaintances.
Nate Lowman, “Red No Smoking Smiley” (2009), at Maccarone Gallery. Photo by Tom Powel, courtesy of the Artist and Maccarone.
Nate Lowman, “Farmer” (2009), at Maccarone Gallery. Photo by Tom Powel, courtesy of the Artist and Maccarone.
Nate Lowman, “Lewinski” (2009), at Maccarone Gallery. Photo by Tom Powel, courtesy of the Artist and Maccarone.
Artist Rita Ackermann at Nate Lowman’s after party for “A Dog for Every County,” at the Beatrice Inn – via Supreme Management blog.
Artist Rita Ackermann at Nate Lowman’s after party for “A Dog for Every County,” at the Beatrice Inn – via Supreme Management blog.
