• NATHAN CARTER
    THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    EXHIBITION DATES: SEPTEMBER 5 – OCTOBER 26, 2013
    OPENING: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 6-8PM

    Casey Kaplan is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Nathan Carter (b. 1970, Dallas, TX.)

    In new drawings and panoramic panel paintings, Nathan Carter has begun an investigation into an idea of the future that is the product of years of volatile urban growth. Heavy maritime salvage, mining, drilling, logging, pirating and an ever-expanding industry of data-mining operations have in effect created a new dynamic landscape. Built at high altitudes and by the water’s edge, Carter’s cities are populated by monuments to their own hubris, fragile towers topped with carousels, dilapidated dormitories, and take-away eateries veiling their dystopic nature with an exuberance that suggests a “bad business as usual” attitude. In response, the environment has become equally turbulent, battering the settlements with rogue waves, electric snowstorms and pink lightning, which amplifies mounting social tensions - verging on a state of industrial disaster and perpetual crisis.

    Formal explorations remain central to these works. They represent equally an interest in the language of abstraction as they do a series of layered references to these precarious environments. Taking an approach that is both studied and jerry-rigged, Carter's new works are an exploration in storytelling achieved through an experimentation with form and material. This interplay is highlighted in new sculptural works, where constellations of geometric forms are suspended in space and slowly reveal themselves as buoyant towers.

    Similarly, Carter not only builds the cities of his drawings and paintings through his fictional narratives but also through the process of drawing itself. Flat planes, loose gestural marks and shapes are revisited and reworked, expanded and refined to give way to the structural foundations. In an almost cartographical approach, areas of color and form are first designated as mountains and rivers, then gestural lines become roads, aerial lifts and skyways before they are further developed into an infrastructure – buildings, bridges, tunnels, signal towers – intrusions from the crevices that constantly react with the abstract, invented landscape. In effect, Carter’s process mimics a refined stream of consciousness, creating systems that are perpetually in flux.

    Nathan Carter recently completed a large-scale permanent outdoor installation titled, HOUSTON RADIO RADAR REFLECTORS at the University of Houston, TX. In the spring of 2013, Carter painted pressure vessel capsules for EBEX, a joint experiment between Columbia University and NASA, which successfully launched into the stratosphere above Antarctica. Past solo exhibitions include: ALWAYS VOCAL ON THE INTERBORO CROSSTOWN LOCAL, presented by the Blaffer Museum of Art as part of the "Windows into Houston" series, 2012, THE FLYING BRIXTON BANGARANG AND RADIO VIBRATION VEX-VENTURE, MURA, Museo de Arte Raul Anguiano, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2009, and THE COVERT CAVIAR FREQUENCY DISRUPTOR, ArtPace, San Antonio, TX, 2008. Additionally his work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including The Fields Sculpture Park, OMI International Arts Center, Ghent, NY, 2013, The Map as Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, 2012/2013, Wireless, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA, 2012, and Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, 2010, Traveled to: Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX, 2011, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, 2011, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, 2011/2012.

    Alarming outbursts of electrifying pink lightning and thundering high altitude rumblers echo throughout the tall towers of titan terminal twenty two oh tango two

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, pencil, color pigment pencil on paper

    71.1 x 71.4" / 180.6 x 181.4cm / Framed: 74.75 x 75" / 189.9 x 190.5cm

    Detail view, Alarming outbursts of electrifying pink lightning and thundering high altitude rumblers echo throughout the tall towers of titan terminal twenty two oh tango two

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, pencil, color pigment pencil on paper

    71.1 x 71.4" / 180.6 x 181.4cm / Framed: 74.75 x 75" / 189.9 x 190.5cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    DELTA BRAVO TOWER CALLING ALPHA ECHO TOWER WE HAVE A PROBLEM ALPHA ECHO DO YOU READ

    2013

    Steel, latex acrylic paint, wire, wood, aluminum, brass, string

    76 x 20 x 21" / 193 x 50.8 x 53.3cm

    DELTA BRAVO TOWER CALLING ALPHA ECHO TOWER WE HAVE A PROBLEM ALPHA ECHO DO YOU READ

    2013

    Steel, latex acrylic paint, wire, wood, aluminum, brass, string

    76 x 20 x 21" / 193 x 50.8 x 53.3cm

    ALPHA ECHO TOWER CALLING DELTA BRAVO TOWER PARTIAL SIGNAL RECEIVED SENDING HAZARDOUS SITUATION TEAM

    2013

    Steel, latex acrylic paint, wire, wood, aluminum, brass, string

    75 x 30 x 36" / 190.5 x 76.2 x 91.4cm

    ALPHA ECHO TOWER CALLING DELTA BRAVO TOWER PARTIAL SIGNAL RECEIVED SENDING HAZARDOUS SITUATION TEAM

    2013

    Steel, latex acrylic paint, wire, wood, aluminum, brass, string

    75 x 30 x 36" / 190.5 x 76.2 x 91.4cm

    Detail view, ALPHA ECHO TOWER CALLING DELTA BRAVO TOWER PARTIAL SIGNAL RECEIVED SENDING HAZARDOUS SITUATION TEAM

    2013

    Steel, latex acrylic paint, wire, wood, aluminum, brass, string

    75 x 30 x 36" / 190.5 x 76.2 x 91.4cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    A forty foot rogue wave crashed sideways over the floating cargo docks

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, pencil, color pigment pencil on paper

    70.5 x 74.1" / 179.1 x 188.2cm Framed: 74 x 77.75" / 188 x 197.5cm

    Detail view, A forty foot rogue wave crashed sideways over the floating cargo docks

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, pencil, color pigment pencil on paper

    70.5 x 74.1" / 179.1 x 188.2cm Framed: 74 x 77.75" / 188 x 197.5cm

    Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is located on the Bering Sea at the base of Avachinsky Volcano

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    71.75 x 96.25" / 182.2 x 244.5cm

    Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is located on the Bering Sea at the base of Avachinsky Volcano

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    71.75 x 96.25" / 182.2 x 244.5cm

    Detail view, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is located on the Bering Sea at the base of Avachinsky Volcano

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    71.75 x 96.25" / 182.2 x 244.5cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    A monstrous flash of pink lightning rip-zipped across the sky

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    72 x 96" / 182.9 x 243.8cm

    Detail view, A monstrous flash of pink lightning rip-zipped across the sky

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    72 x 96" / 182.9 x 243.8cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    As dawn broke after the terrible Blue Northern there was a calm that settled in over the Seven Summits

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    94 x 58" / 238.8 x 147.3cm each Installed dimensions: 94 x 174" / 238.8 x 442cm

    Detail view: As dawn broke after the terrible Blue Northern there was a calm that settled in over the Seven Summits

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    94 x 58" / 238.8 x 147.3cm each Installed dimensions: 94 x 174" / 238.8 x 442cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    A vicious outbreak of super-cyclonic polar weather caused blizzard conditions and prompted and emergency white-out advisory

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    58 x 94" / 147.3 x 238.8cm

    Detail view, A vicious outbreak of super-cyclonic polar weather caused blizzard conditions and prompted and emergency white-out advisory

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    58 x 94" / 147.3 x 238.8cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    Arctic atmospheric conditions in the shallows of Gulf of Anadyr were so cold that turbulent wind sheer vortex rotors appeared in the sky like contrails of a shuttle flight flown by a pilot high on Phenodihydrochloride Benzelex

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    58 x 94" / 147.3 x 238.8cm

    Arctic atmospheric conditions in the shallows of Gulf of Anadyr were so cold that turbulent wind sheer vortex rotors appeared in the sky like contrails of a shuttle flight flown by a pilot high on Phenodihydrochloride Benzelex

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    58 x 94" / 147.3 x 238.8cm

    Detail view, Arctic atmospheric conditions in the shallows of Gulf of Anadyr were so cold that turbulent wind sheer vortex rotors appeared in the sky like contrails of a shuttle flight flown by a pilot high on Phenodihydrochloride Benzelex

    2013

    Latex acrylic paint, ink, color pigment on aluminum di-bond

    58 x 94" / 147.3 x 238.8cm

    Exhibition view, THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

    2013

    THE FLY-BY-NIGHT MEGA METRO SUB ROSA TURBULENT TWISTER

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