Artists

Nathaniel Mary Quinn is known for his fractured, composite portraits that probe the relationship between perception, memory, and identity. Using a combination of oil paint, charcoal, gouache, pastel, and oil stick, Quinn creates paintings that mimic the language of collage while remaining resolutely painterly. Faces and figures are constructed from fragments of images drawn from family photographs, fashion magazines, and online sources, resulting in hybrid visages that are at once intimate and uncanny. His work, which filters influences from Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, and Francis Bacon through a deeply personal lens, reflects on the multiplicity of Black identity while capturing the complexity of human emotion.

Quinn’s passion for art began early, growing up in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. As a teenager, he received a scholarship to attend Culver Academies, but while there he endured the sudden death of his mother and the disappearance of his family from their home. In tribute, he added her name, Mary, to his own, ensuring her presence on his academic and professional achievements. He went on to earn a BA in art and psychology from Wabash College (2000) and an MFA from New York University (2002).

After years of working as a teacher while painting in Brooklyn, Quinn experienced a breakthrough in 2013 with his canvas Charles, a work that emerged from an improvised memory of his brother and led to his first exhibition opportunities in New York. That year his work was included in American Beauty at Susan Inglett Gallery, where it received a widely noted review by Holland Cotter in The New York Times, launching his international career.

Quinn has since presented solo exhibitions at venues including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin (This Is Life, 2018–19), Pace Gallery (London), Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, London), Rhona Hoffman Gallery (Chicago), and M+B Gallery (Los Angeles). Group exhibitions include presentations at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (Brooklyn), the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Artists Space (New York).

His work is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, Museo Jumex, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.