Skip to main content
Almine Rech

Nathaniel Mary Quinn

Nathaniel Mary Quinn (b. 1977) creates hybrid, fractured portraits on paper and linen using charcoal, gouache, pastel, paint stick, and oil paint. His works are replete with art historical references to Cubism, Surrealism, Francis Bacon, and others, yet his process is also very personal, drawing from his memories, experiences, traumas, and family history growing up in Chicago’s Robert Taylor housing project. Nathaniel Mary Quinn balances the beautiful with the grotesque, the sinister with the benevolent, capturing the complexity of human emotion in a way that is individual and also representative of the human condition.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn is represented by Almine Rech in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn has exhibited at galleries and institutions internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include Half Gallery, New York; Luce Gallery, Torino, Italy; M + B Gallery, Los Angeles; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; Bunker 259 Gallery, Brooklyn; Pace Gallery, London, England; and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn, New York. He has also been featured in the group exhibitions at Artist Space, New York; The Bronx Museum of Arts; Albertz Benda, New York; Satori Gallery, New York; Susan-Inglett Gallery, New York; and Driscoll Babcock Gallery, New York; and in A Process Series | Here He Come: Black Jesus, curated by Jessamyn Fiore, Rawson Projects, New York. His work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Independent (London), AFROPUNK, the Chicago Reader, The Daily News, The New York Times, Huffington Post, and Time Out New York. He is the recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Artistic, Performance, and Fine Arts Award and a two-time winner of the National Arts Club Prize. Quinn is included in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Sheldon Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Nathaniel Mary Quinn, a native of Chicago, received his BFA from Wabash College and his MFA from New York University. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

  • Biography

    read or download
  • Bibliography

    read or download

Selected artworks

  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn,                                      Norman, 2022

    Nathaniel Mary Quinn Norman, 2022

    Oil paint, oil pastel, black charcoal, guoache on canvas

    35.6 x 27.9 cm
    14 x 11 in

  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn,                                      Midnight Train, 2021

    Nathaniel Mary Quinn Midnight Train, 2021

    Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel, oil paint, paint stick on linen canvas

    35.6 x 27.9 x 3.2 cm
    14 x 11 x 1 1/4 in

  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn,                                      Holding On, 2021

    Nathaniel Mary Quinn Holding On, 2021

    Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel, oil paint, paint stick on linen canvas

    76.2 x 76.2 x 3.2 cm
    30 x 30 x 1 1/4 in

  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn,                                      Look Over Your Shoulder, 2021

    Nathaniel Mary Quinn Look Over Your Shoulder, 2021

    Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel on Coventry Vellum Paper

    40.6 x 33 cm
    16 x 13 in
    19 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2 in (framed)

  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn,                                      The Storm, 2021

    Nathaniel Mary Quinn The Storm, 2021

    Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel on Coventry Vellum Paper

    127 x 96.5 cm
    50 x 38 in
    54 1/16 x 42 1/16 x 2 1/4 in (framed)

Videos

  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Artist about his exhibition at Le Consortium Museum, Dijon, 2022

Museum exhibitions

Selected press