NATHANIEL ROBINSON | Rooms with Rooms and Games | November 17 – December 21, 2024
It is hard to know what to think. ¶ There is such a thing as existing and experiencing existence. And there is the world which goes its own way heedlessly. Whether these are actually contradictory, I’m not sure. But it does confront me as puzzling, and as a stumbling block. ¶ The figure feels the water flowing from the faucet, or feels for water which will not flow, or waits for the feeling of flowing water. The figures felt like a risk, which was good. They are acting within models, scenarios constructed like stage sets for perspicuous viewing from the outside. They are parts of a demonstration demonstrating experiences.
— Nathaniel Robinson, October 2024
— Nathaniel Robinson, October 2024
Capturing things half-seen, or the “slipping glimpse” as Willem De Kooning once referred to it, has been a preoccupation among painters for decades. But few resolve this paradox adequately and even fewer do so in the terms of representational painting. That Robinson succeeds so brilliantly and so consistently without having to rely on gimmicks to create the illusion of movement is a testament to his gift for critical observation, no less than his prowess with a brush. No specialist knowledge is required, only open and alert eyes. This show is a true must-see.
— Alan Pocaro | Slipping Glimpses: A Review of Nathaniel Robinson at Devening Projects | New City | September 20, 2021
— Alan Pocaro | Slipping Glimpses: A Review of Nathaniel Robinson at Devening Projects | New City | September 20, 2021
When I call something something (like calling something a game), I mean that it is that and also that it isn’t that. ¶ Call the whole game an elaboration on the semipermeable membrane, the primordial selective separation from the environment. Or rather, not to presuppose environment and self, the division of one reality into two environments, one surrounding the other, and the maintenance of that distinction. Not a simple distinction, but a distinction conditioned on connection conditioned on separation. You know what I mean. So it is a game with rooms. With a slight jolt I notice that, while looking up from the keyboard and thinking out my next words, I have been watching moths searching for openings in the nighttime window screen.
— Nathaniel Robinson, 2024
— Nathaniel Robinson, 2024
